


Book One: Earth

by orphan_account



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, Angst, Bloodbending (Avatar), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21807028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After one hundred years of war, a new Avatar named Kai emerges to bring balance to the world.  She and her friend, Bato, are the last waterbenders and have been trapped in an iceberg for the past hundred years.  When a young earthbender frees them, they learn that the Water Tribes have been destroyed by the Fire Nation.  With an uncertain future and a handsome prince hunting them down, will they be able to save the world?Basically a Zutara AU where Katara is the Avatar.  I rewrote the original Avatar characters to be older and to make the two more compatible.  Updates on Sunday
Relationships: Zuko/Oc
Kudos: 11





	1. The Iceberg

Prince Zuko walked into the dimly lit room, the candles flickering and illuminating the silk draped throughout the room. He couldn’t believe he let Uncle Iroh talk him into seeing this fortune teller; he had to know it wasn’t real.

“It will be fun!” He told him. “And who knows, maybe she will tell you something you want to hear.” He finally agreed; he had drug him around the Earth Kingdom for months now. It had been years of constantly travelling, always searching, but his uncle always seemed to get in the way. The old man tried to get him off course, to settle down, to

“Please sit,” the fortune teller said, motioning to a cushion. He did as he was told. There was a small fire burning in the center of the room. The fortune teller sat across from him and motioned to a small bowl containing what looked like chicken bones. “Pick one and cast it into the fire. I can read the cracks to tell you your future. They never lie”

This is completely ridiculous, cracks in a bone? This old lady has lost it. Nevertheless, he picked up a curved bone and threw it into the fire.

The fortune teller watched with anticipation. After a moment the bone split, violently, with a loud crack. “My goodness, I have never seen this before!” She exclaimed as she watched the bone crack even further. The bone splintered into two pieces with another loud crack. Zuko found himself staring at the bone in fascination just like the fortune teller. After only a few seconds of being in the fire, the flames erupted, cinders flying. The flames subsided as quickly as they appeared.

“This is incredible!” the fortune teller proclaimed, still staring into the dying embers. “You will be involved in a great battle, between the forces of evil and good! The fate of this battle will determine the fate of the entire world!”

He perked up at the mention of a powerful bender. “What does it say about this bender? When will I meet him? When will we fight? Will I win?”

The fortuneteller picked up one of the larger fragments of bone that were spat out of the fire and began to examine it. “All I can read is that you have a difficult path ahead before you face them. I can see you have suffered great defeat and shame in your past, and this battle will allow you to heal and regain your purpose.”

He knew what she was talking about. The day he got his scar was the worst day of his life. He was ready to reclaim what was lost that day; he had been training for this fight for the past six years.

“I will warn you though,” the fortune teller continued, examining the cracks. “Before you face this destiny, you must look deep within yourself. You will be broken and rebuilt, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.”

Zuko wasn’t sure of what she meant by this, but she was beginning to sound like his uncle. Too poetic and preachy. He decided to press her more.

“I know my destiny. Where can I find this bender?”

“It does not say. But I can see that you will both be young, so you don’t have too long to wait. If I may?” She motioned to his hand. He reached out to her and she examined his palm.

“Your love lines say it all: you have a happy marriage in your future. You have a good future to look forward to, but much introspection and growth to be able to obtain it.”

Once the reading was done, he returned to the waiting room where his uncle was sitting and drinking some tea; as was his usual.

“So, how did it go Prince Zuko?” Uncle Iroh asked with a smile, “Did Aunt Wu say anything about a special lady in your future?”

“No.” He snapped back. “She didn’t tell me anything. I’m going back to the ship.”

He stormed out of the fortune teller’s shop and began to walk back to the ship, which had been his home for the past six years. How long would he have to keep searching? It had been six long years, and he took it hard. His eye and face had scarred badly, with no sign of healing; he was lucky to have his sight. He let his hair grow out years ago instead of meticulously shaving his head with a ponytail; it hid the ugly scar better having his hair long. At least the fortune teller got one thing right: the Prince had his share of hardships in life. The Agni Kai with his father had shown him his true destiny. He had been preparing since he was thirteen, and it showed in his physique and his firebending. He was ready for the Avatar, wherever he may be.

* * *

Gin liked to walk alone, when she had time; it was a nice distraction from all of the stress in the village. Without her older brother around she had to pick up a lot of his chores, but she still made time to come down to her favorite secluded cove. She had always practiced her bending here because it was safe. No one in town ever came down here, not even Fire Nation soldiers. Today was different though; she needed to blow off steam.

“Just run along Gin, we need to give them what they asked for.” That’s what her mother kept telling her, but it really got to her today. The Fire Nation had ruined their lives; always being the antagonists to her and her family ever since she was born. They demanded more and more food for their army, and more settlers kept coming and taking her neighbor’s farmland. Gin knew that she could defend herself, and she wanted to fight them off. With how angry she was, she felt like she really could fight the whole Fire Nation. But the other earthbenders had been taken away long ago, and she didn’t want that to happen if she lost.

She knew her mother just wanted to help, but she was tired of feeling useless. She was tired of being coddled like a child, being told to run along. She was sixteen now, she wasn’t the baby of the house. It didn’t help that she looked younger than she was; her freckles, short brown hair, stocky build, and button nose made people think she was still ten. As she reached the edge of the cliff, something caught her eye on the beach: it looked like an iceberg had washed up.

 _That’s weird_ , she thought, _we never got ice here, even in the winter_.

She widened her stance, took a deep breath, and slammed her foot to create a series of steps in the cliffside so she could reach the shore. She hopped down the fifty-foot cliff with ease, like she had done a dozen times before, and reached the shoreline. She took off her brown overcoat; she preferred to practice without sleeves, even if it was starting to get colder. Her clothes were plain; they couldn’t afford much to begin with, but earthbending was usually dirty business. She wore a simple brown shirt and olive pants, tied at the waist with brown cloth.

She examined the big block of ice, running her fingers along the cold, smooth surface. It sure was cold enough that day for it to stay frozen but she had never seen an iceberg make its way here before, let alone one this large; the thing was the size of a barn. Gin bended some pebbles that had fallen off the cliff and flung them at the iceberg, deciding to take her frustration out on the hunk of ice.

“We gave them almost our entire harvest and they still need more?” she said to herself. “If the Fire Nation is so great, then why do they have to steal from us?” She struck the iceberg again with another pebble and a small piece of ice broke away. She bended up some larger rocks and kicked, sending them flying into the iceberg, another piece of ice splintering off.

“I swear, one day I’m going to join the army. I’m going to make a difference. How much more food can they possibly need when were starving?” She picked up a larger boulder this time, which was a bit of a struggle. She bended it over her head and chucked it at the ice. This time, the ice fought back. She had struck it right in the middle, hard, and splinters shot out as the ice collapsed on itself. The boulder made a big hole in the center of the block but hadn’t gone through. It looked like the ice actually had a hollow center where the boulder had broken it. Before she could get a closer look, she was thrown back. A massive beam of light radiated from the ice and shot toward the sky, creating a shockwave on the beach. It lasted for a few moments, then subsided.

Gin, now more cautiously, approached the hollow iceberg as blue light swirled around it. She really hoped she hadn’t just angered an iceberg spirit or something ridiculous like that, but when looked inside the hollow center she saw two people and a giant dog. All of them looked like they were asleep. As she watched from the outside, one of them woke up. He opened his eyes slowly.

“Hey,” she said from the outside, “are you hurt?” The guy slowly sat up and looked around. He was handsome with dark skin, a chiseled jawline, thick brows, a wide nose, and dark brown hair that reached his shoulders. He was wearing a blue fur coat and fur-lined boots. He ignored Gin for the moment and looked at the other person inside lying next to him. He shook her shoulders, trying to get her to wake up.

“Kai, what did you do? Wake up.” The man spoke to her as he tried to get her to move.

“Huh?” She abruptly sat up and started rubbing her forehead, keeping her eyes closed. She was dressed similar to the man, with a blue fur-lined coat and fur boots. “I have the worst hangover right now.” She groaned to herself.

“Kai we’re in an iceberg” the man said.

“Bato can you give me a minute before you start complaining” the girl sounded exasperated, her eyes still closed, as she continued to rub her forehead to try and wake up. Bato gave up with Kai for the moment and turned his attention to Gin. His dark, sapphire eyes stared at the earthbender, making him look more intimidating.

“Hey, you, where are we?” he asked, flatly.

“You’re in the northeastern Earth Kingdom. Who are you?” Gin asked back shyly.

Bato slowly stood up and climbed out of the iceberg. He was taller than she was, and at least a year older. He stretched his arms out as he explained.

“Kai and I are waterbenders from the North Pole. We were taking a trip to the Earth Kingdom, but we got caught up in a storm and our boat capsized. I don’t remember how we ended up in the iceberg, though.”

“You guys are waterbenders? I thought they were extinct.”

Kai finally made her way out of the iceberg. She was the same height as her companion with tan skin and wavy brown hair that was tied in a topknot. She was pretty, a lot prettier than she was: she had a similar angular face to her companion but with less pronounced cheekbones; her nose was small and thin, rounded at the end. Her icy blue eyes still looked drowsy from just waking up; she had thin, slightly angled brows and long lashes to compliment them. Overall, she just looked kind, like someone you wanted to be friends with, someone that always wanted to help you.

“Kai, we’re in the Earth Kingdom,” Bato said to his companion.

“Yea I heard. What did you say your name was?” Kai asked, turning her attention to her.

“I’m Gin.”

“Nice to meet you Gin.” Kai seemed to wake up the more she moved around, giving her a little smile. “Do you know where we can find a place to stay for the night and get some food? I’d rather sleep in an iceberg again.”

“Actually, you guys had better stay here for now. I don’t think the Fire Nation soldiers would like to see waterbenders. You could get into trouble.”

“Fire Nation soldiers?” Bato asked, clearly very confused. “Why are there Fire Nation soldiers in the Earth Kingdom?”

“Because of the war?” She told them, confused that they didn’t know. “I don’t know why they’re here specifically, besides to steal food and land from us.”

Bato and Kai both looked nervous and shot a glance at each other.

“What war?” Kai asked.

* * *

The Prince saw the bright flash of light coming from the north while out on the bow of his ship. It shot high into the sky, like a bright blue beacon into the heavens.

_Finally._

He turned around to his uncle, playing cards and drinking tea on the deck.

“Uncle, do you realize what this means?”

“I won’t get to finish my game?” He asked, not even looking up from his cards.

“It means my search is about to come to an end.” He turned back around and stared at that glorious light again. “That light came from an incredibly powerful source, it has to be him!”

“Or it's just a trick of the clouds, or an airbender practicing their art.” His uncle said dismissively. “We’ve been down this road before, Prince Zuko, I don’t want you to get too excited over nothing. Please, sit; why don’t you enjoy a cup of calming jasmine tea?”

“I don’t need any calming tea!” He yelled back at him, starting to get worked up at the prospect of finding what he wanted. “I need to capture the Avatar. Helmsman,” He yelled up to the bridge, “set a course for the light.”

* * *

Gin agreed to take Kai to the marketplace so the waterbenders could pick up a few things while Bato stayed behind. She felt nervous bringing her into town, but she agreed to stay quiet and try not to be noticed. The world hadn't seen a waterbender for a hundred years anyway, so no one even knew what they looked like. Their giant dog, which they told her was a polar bear dog named Koda, was still passed out and Bato wanted to be there when she woke up.

“Hey, I was wondering,” She asked her new friend, “with you two being waterbenders, do you have any idea what happened to the Avatar?”

“Uh, no…I didn’t know them. Sorry.” The two walked in silence for a little while longer as she led her down the old dirt path from the cliffs to the village.

“Hey,” Kai spoke up this time, “Bato and I just left the Fire Nation. We lived on Ember Island for the past year and a half and there wasn’t any talk of a war there. What happened?”

“About a hundred years ago, the Fire Nation decided to invade the rest of the world. They attacked the Water Tribe first and destroyed them. I think some of the soldiers said it was to expand the influence of their nation or something like that. But that was one hundred years ago, there’s no way you could have not heard about it if you were just in the Fire Nation, unless they don’t talk about the war on Ember Island for some reason.”

“I couldn’t have been in that iceberg there too long. Do I look like a one hundred-eighteen-year-old woman to you?” Kai mused, trying to lighten things up as they continued toward the village. Gin didn’t want to push her any further. They needed time to process what happened and the new world that they are living in. But how could two waterbenders survive in an iceberg for a hundred years? Why were they coming from the Fire Nation to begin with?

 _I haven’t actually seen either of them waterbending either, but why would they lie about that?_ Nothing about this situation or what they said made any sense, but at least helping them out was the least she could do.

* * *

Securing the Avatar was much easier than Zuko anticipated. The ship had been docked on the beach right next to where he was. He put up a good fight, and froze three of his men to the sand, but the Prince pressed him against the cliffside away from the sea and trapped him there until he lost his footing. Once the Avatar had his hands bound and his dog was secured, two of his soldiers got the waterbender standing so Zuko could face him.

“I was always told waterbenders were weak. That’s why you were all eliminated a hundred years ago. Now look at you; the last of your kind, and you can barely defend yourself.”

The waterbender said nothing and remained stoic, turning his face away from the Prince.

“I’ve spent years preparing for this encounter, Avatar; training, meditating, and you’re just a teenager.”

“I’m not the Avatar.” He said, still looking down at the sand.

“You think I’m going to believe that?” He snapped back. “You’re the only waterbender the world has seen in a hundred years. If you’re not the Avatar, then where is he?”

They were interrupted by a shout from the cliff. Two girls were standing at the edge, side by side, one taller and wearing similar clothes to the Avatar, the other a shorter Earth Kingdom peasant.

“Let him go.” The taller girl commanded.

"I think she's the one you're looking for." The waterbender told him, motioning up to her with his head.

“You’re the Avatar?” he shouted back to her. “You’re a girl. Girls weren’t warriors. Run along.”

“Man, you’re going to make her mad.” The waterbender he captured warned him with a smile, shaking his head.

Zuko turned to him, confused. He had done his research on Water Tribe culture; he had six years to study them and prepare for fighting a waterbender. Every writing had mentioned that women waterbenders were healers, they couldn’t fight, but it was possible that parts of their culture were lost during the war. Still, he doubted that this girl was any threat to him. She was just a distraction to try and get him to release the Avatar. He turned his attention back to the girl on the cliff.

“If you’re the Avatar,” He yelled to her, “then come down here and fight me instead of running away like you’ve done for the past one hundred years”

He watched her closely. She took off her coat and said something to the other person with her. She took up her stance and took a deep breath. After a moment of concentration, she snapped into action. The girl began bending the water around his ship that was docked on the beach. She pooled the water under the ship, thrust it up into the air, then froze the water beneath it and on the sides. He watched in awe as the girl froze his ship in the air when just a moment ago it was firmly planted on the beach. Now he was mad.

The girl bended water from the ocean into an arc, which she froze and slid down to reach the beach. Once down, she unfroze the water and attacked.

Zuko took his stance and shot fire at her from a distance. She was quick and easily dodged from the distance she was at, but she began to move in. One of his soldiers was in her way and she went after him first. She got in close, and right when he was about to shoot fire out of his hand she grabbed his wrist, moved it to the side, then bended the water onto his head and froze it. After dodging more fire from her right and left, she unfroze the one soldier, who choked and tried to get his breath back. She used the water to create shards of ice, which she shot at him and his soldier. He dodged before one could hit him in the head, but his soldier wasn’t so lucky. She kept up her barrage of ice and the Prince melted as much as he could, but eventually he was forced to move back further on the beach to the water’s edge. That was exactly what she was looking for.

It was over in seconds. As soon as his leg hit the water, it was frozen in place. He noticed before he could lose his balance, but she used that brief window to bend the water forward like an incoming tide and froze his other foot in place. She directed the flow upward, freezing his whole body up to the neck. He was immobile, and she had won.

She approached him, slowly, and he finally saw who the real Avatar was. She was young and fair, her icy blue eyes staring straight at him. Without her long coat on, she was wearing a sleeveless blue shirt and plain fur trimmed pants. She was lean but athletic and shorter than he was, certainly not someone he thought could take him down so easily. She brushed some her dark hair off of her face with her hand, which was still neatly tied; she barely broke a sweat in the fight. He, meanwhile, was out of breath, his hair had fallen down over his face, and he was frozen in place. She stopped a few feet from him, crossed her arms, and spoke.

“My name is Kai of the Northern Water tribe, and I'm the Avatar. Who are you and why are you hunting me?"

“I am Zuko, son of Ozai, crowned Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne. I was given the task of tracking you down and defeating you by my father, the Fire Lord.”

“Why is Prince of the Fire Nation doing mercenary work?”

“That’s none of your business, peasant.” He snapped, taken aback by her comment. “Defeating you will bring me honor and will bring honor to my nation.”

“Whatever.” She rudely waved him off dismissively with her hand. “I don’t really care about your stupid honor system. What I don’t like is people badgering me, so I’d really appreciate it if you left me and my friends alone.”


	2. The Avatar Returns

“That was incredible! I’ve never seen someone fight like that before." Gin was ecstatic; no one had ever stood up to the Fire Nation like that before. Most of the people around the village just let them do whatever they wanted, but they just stood up to the Prince of the Fire Nation. She didn't even get to fight, but just being there and being around these two made her heart race. Anyone who stood up to the Fire Nation deserved a place to spend the night in her book, so she hopped on their polar bear dog and told Kai where to go. Her mom probably wouldn't like it, but who cared? This was the most fun she'd had in years.

“Fighting firebenders is easy,” Kai piped up from the front. “I’m surprised they got you, Bato, I thought you were better than that.”

“I am! They just snuck up on me, and I'm still tired."

“A ship snuck up on you on the beach?” she teased.

“I went to look around and I came back and the ship was there!”

“You left Koda all by herself?”

“She was up by then! Look what’s important now is that everything's fine and we need to get somewhere safe.”

They made it back to Gin’s farm on the outskirt of the village. At the gate, the trio hopped off of Koda’s back and Gin showed them where the barn was. They had begun to unpack their bags from Koda’s saddle when her mother walked into the barn.

“Gin, what are these people doing here?”

“Mom, these are my friends, Kai and Bato. They’re staying in the barn tonight.”

“They don’t look familiar.” She was clearly upset, crossing her arms and stepping into the barn. “Why are they hiding in the barn, Gin?”

Kai stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

“If we’re not welcome here, we will leave. Bato and I are both fleeing from the Fire Nation. We just need a place to stay the night and we’ll be on our way tomorrow.”

“You most certainly will not be spending the night here. I can’t get into any trouble with the Fire Nation. I'm sorry, but you need to leave.”

“Mom, please—"

“We will talk about this later back in the house.”

“No, Mom, you need to listen to me.” Gin began to raise her voice, stepping forward toward her mother. “These two can help us! They just fought off a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers, they can get rid of the soldiers that are bothering us.”

“You need to understand that the Fire Nation is not to be messed with. We need to do what they ask of us and not cause any trouble. I am not going to harbor fugitives in our house.” Her mother began to turn around to leave the barn.

“Won’t you just listen!” Gin shouted. Her mother turned back around. “These people aren’t fugitives. Kai is the Avatar, and she’s a waterbender. Did you see that flash of light today by the beach? That was her! It’s her job to help. Just let them stay.”

Her mother looked at Kai. “The Avatar? There hasn’t been and Avatar in a hundred years, and there are no more waterbenders.”

“That’s why we have to help them." Gin paused for a moment, then decided to pull out her trump card. "If Chen was here, he would let them stay.”

“Don’t you dare bring up your brother’s name.”

“He’s out there fighting the Fire Nation right now. Why do we have to do whatever they say? I’m tired of letting them boss me around, and so was he.”

Her mother sighed and slumped her shoulders. It looked like Gin finally got through to her.

“Fine, they can stay the night. But only tonight, understand?”

The trio breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, for the time being.

* * *

“Why didn’t you tell me you were the Avatar?” Gin asked her.

Kai sighed, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knees. “I guess, it’s because I never expected to be.”

She felt lost, more lost than usual. After her brief encounter with the Fire Nation, the reality of her situation had begun to sink in. She really was the Avatar, and she really had been in that iceberg for a hundred years. All she had now was Bato, and of course Koda. The two did everything together growing up, including running away from home when they were sixteen. Now there wasn’t a home to go back to, but it's not like the Northern Water Tribe ever felt like home to begin with. It was almost like her whole life got a reset; whether that was a good or bad thing was still to be seen.

“I found out when I was eighteen." She told the earthbender. "They’re supposed to tell you when you’re sixteen, but right before my birthday Bato and I decided to leave the Northern Water Tribe. That guy back on the beach was right about one thing: girls weren’t allowed to waterbend. I decided to leave because I wanted to learn how to fight instead of just being a healer. That’s why we went to the Fire Nation, so we’d get far away from them and they couldn’t track us down.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I was the Chief’s son,” Bato explained. “And I didn’t think it was fair that they refused to teach her. The Water Tribe had a lot of stupid rules.”

Kai was glad he didn’t bring up any of the other stupid water tribe rules. Gin didn’t need to know all of their secrets at once.

“Eventually," She continued, "they did track us down and that’s when they told me. They had known my entire life and they still refused to teach me how to fight because I was a girl.”

“You’re clearly pretty good at fighting now." Gin commented. "You showed that one guy with the scar.”

“Yea, I did,” she said with a slight smile. “That’s the last time he’s going to underestimate me. If he’s really out to hunt me, though, we need to figure out a plan of action. The last thing I want to do is go back to the North Pole, and it sounds like the Fire Nation is out too.”

“Well, you are the Avatar,” Bato pointed out, “I guess the new plan is to master all four elements?”

“I can help teach you earthbending." Gin offered. "I don’t really know that much, but we can find a master together.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” She said, “As long as your mom is ok with you leaving home. I’m all for doing your own thing, but she seemed pretty reluctant to have us here. I don’t want you to feel like you need to come with us, and don’t do it just to make your mom mad.”

Gin sighed. “I’m all she has now. The Fire Nation took my father away when I was little, and my brother went off to fight in the war last year. I know she just wants me to be safe and I get that, but I can’t live like this anymore.”

“Think it over tonight and talk to her,” Bato said. “I wish I would have done that with my parents before I ran off. I’ll never be able to do that now.”

Gin really felt for these two. She said goodnight and left the fire and went back to the house. After she was gone, the duo put out the fire and settled in for the night, rolling out their sleeping bags together in the barn.

“Kai, I need to you to promise me something.”

“What's up buddy?" She took off her coat and boots, setting them next to her sleeping bag on the ground.

“We’re it now, everyone else is gone.”

Kai could see that Bato was taking this hard. He ran away from the Water Tribe like she did, but he had it a lot better there. He wanted to go back someday, after they had their fun. He had a place there; he was going to be Chief. His once certain future was gone now.

“Help me remember.” He said, looking away, not able to meet her eyes. “I know that you especially had a lot of issues with the way things were, but we can’t let all of it die.”

She didn’t really know what to say to him. So much had just happened to them, and it was hard to understand why or what to do now. All she could do was reach out her arms toward him and give him a hug; they would always have each other.

* * *

“Look, Mom, I know you don’t want me to go, but I really think this is what’s right for me. I knew you would understand.”

Gin was practicing her speech in her room. She really did want to go with her new friends, but convincing her mom was going to be difficult. It was late at night at this point, and she knew that she should rest if she was going to be leaving tomorrow. Suddenly, she heard the door crack.

“Gin, can we talk for a moment?”

It was her mother. Immediately she tensed up; how was she going to do this?

“Yea, come in.” She nodded to her mom, who came in and sat on her bed. She patted it, motioning her to sit down next to her.

“I know I haven’t been fair to you. I know that it’s unfair that your brother is gone and you’re still here. But I want you to know that I am trying to keep you safe and out of trouble. I don’t want the Fire Nation to come for you and for you to just disappear one day. It's hard enough not hearing from your brother, not knowing if he's safe."

“Mom, I—”

“I know you can defend yourself, you don’t have to say it. And I’m proud of you, I really am.”

Gin looked at her mother, nearly in tears after hearing her say that. "Mom, I feel like I really need to go with them. She’s the Avatar; she’s the only one that can make a difference in this war. She and I both need to find a master, and there aren’t any around here."

Her mother signed, wiping away a few tears from her eyes as well. “I always knew both of my children were exceptional. If I was young again and could bend, I would probably say the same thing.”

The two shared a smile together Gin wiped a tear from her face with her knuckle and sniffed and her mother gave her a big hug and squeezed her tightly.

“Just promise me you’re going to come home." She told her daughter, pressing her close. "I love you so much.”

* * *

“Ok, before we leave, lets take a look at our supplies.” Bato said. The two waterbenders were looking everything over before they left, seeing what was lost in the storm and packing up the supplies that they bought the day before. 

“It looks like we have enough rations to last u for a bit.” He said, checking his bag before loading it on Koda’s saddle. “We can always catch food on the way too. Blankets and tents? Check. Kai, what do you have in your bag?”

“I still have the Earth Kingdom money that the sages gave us before we left Ember Island, and Koda’ whistle.” Kai rifled through her bag and took all of her things out, laying them on the ground in front of her. “Still have these old scrolls we stole too. Oops, I forgot I stole this.”

“What is it?”

She pulled out a small vial from the deep recesses of her bag, and Bato walked over to examine it. 

“This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. I stole it from Master Aok before I left.”

“You stole from your own master?”

“You stole those waterbending scrolls from yours, don’t judge me for stealing spirit water from mine. I wonder if it's still good.” Figuring she should keep it safe, she wrapped it in some old scraps of cloth she had to keep it from breaking.

“I didn’t steal all of the scrolls," He retorted, "most of those were gifts. And I don’t want to hear you complaining; without them you wouldn’t have learned how to fight.”

Kai rolled her eyes and continued to pack everything up. They loaded everything onto Koda’s saddle and on their backs. As they were almost ready to go, they saw Gin walking over with a bag of her own. The three of them hopped on board Koda’s back, thanked Gin’s mother for allowing them to stay, and said their farewell. Their journey had officially begun.

* * *

The Prince and his crew managed to limp their way back to the Fire Nation. Unfortunately it wasn't for the reason he had hoped for; the ship desperately needed repairs, and it had set him back. It looked like it had been through a typhoon and they had barely been able to sail back without sinking. He and his uncle went to the officer’s club to see if there were temporary rooms available until the repairs were finished.

“Good to see you again, Prince Zuko. How long has it been, six years now?”

The Prince turned. It was Admiral Zhao, one of the lower ranking military officers. He only knew who he was because he had been there on the day of his Agni Kai.

“A pleasure, Admiral Zhao.” Uncle Iroh greeted him.

“Actually, its Commander Zhao now.”

“Congratulations on the promotion.” Iroh said.

“Prince Zuko, why don’t you and your uncle join me for tea? I’m sure you have much to tell about your search for the Avatar.”

“We can’t.” He said quickly. “We need to see the dockmaster and get our ship scheduled for repairs.”

“Repairs? What happened to it?”

“We ran into a rogue iceberg when we were searching the North Pole.”

“Hmm, its lucky you didn’t sink. Better keep a closer eye next time. And how is your search going?”

“We haven’t found anything, yet.”

“Well, it’s always good to remain hopeful. Another time, then.” The commander gave him a sly smile and walked off; thankfully, it looked like fell for the lie. At least for now, the Prince had kept his secret safe. That fight with her had not gone well for him, but he was persistent. He didn’t give up this easily; next time, it would go better.

He remembered her face. The one that humiliated him in front of his soldiers and make him look like a fool. The cold blue eyes staring at him when he was trapped like an animal. He hated her. He wanted to memorize it, so he could spot it anywhere he went, to pick her out in any crowd.

He was going to remember that face.


	3. Noodle Soup

“Sir, that report you ordered.”

The soldier came in and placed the scroll on his desk. Ah, he had been waiting for this one.

“Thank you, that will be all.”

Zhao waited until the soldier had left the room before unfolding it. He had his men pay off some of the members of Zuko’s crew. He just wanted to see what the prince was up to; he had never liked that kid, and he wanted a full report on how badly he was failing in his snipe hunt for the Avatar. To his surprise, the report was contradictory to what he expected. The boy had actually found the Avatar, she was alive and well, and in the Earth Kingdom. The two had fought and Zuko had lost and let her get away. No wonder he said his ship had hit an iceberg, the waterbender must have done that. This changed everything. 

He was going to keep this a secret, for now. But the thought of capturing the Avatar for himself instead of Zuko… well, it was certainly an idea. He would go down in history as the one who ended the waterbenders, the one who ended the Avatar. He would need to start making preparations.

* * *

“Ok, the first lesson: push a rock.”

It was Kai’s first day of earthbending training. They stayed near the mountains along the coast in their journey eastward so that there would be plenty of boulders to throw around. Today, they had hiked to the top of a smaller one and found a nice, flat clearing to practice. It was bordered on both sides by trees, but the slope was steep enough that it wasn’t well travelled. They wanted to make sure no one could disturb them.

“You’re going to want a really wide stance, like this, with your arms at your side.”

Kai stood beside Gin and mirrored what she did.

“The best way to earthbend is literally be the rock. Be steady and sturdy so that you can’t be knocked over. You also have to think like the rock. Be completely set in your intention. If you want the rock to move, you have to tell yourself that the rock is going to move.”

Gin stood back to her normal posture and walked around Kai as she took her form. He adjusted her legs to be wider and made her bend her knees more.

“Better. Now watch me as I push this boulder.”

Kai stayed in her stance, and watched as Gin stepped forward, firmly planted her foot down, and punched forward, which sent the rock backward into the mountain. Seemed easy enough.

“Your turn.”

Kai took a deep breath and looked at the boulder in front of her. She envisioned it moving backward as she took a large step, firmly planted her foot down, and punched.

Instead of moving, the boulder cracked down the middle instead.

She turned to Gin, eyes wide and mouth open in bewilderment. Simultaneously, the two started laughing.

“Well, it was definitely not what I expected to happen.”

“Its ok to not get it on your first try, but at least you did something to it.”

“Hey, can you two rockheads keep it down?” Bato came out of the trees to the left of the girls with his makeshift wooden spear. “I’m trying to hunt for dinner, and I would really appreciate some peace and quiet, so you don’t scare everything off.”

“Sorry, master hunter. I’ll try and train the Avatar more quietly.” Gin said, sarcastically bowing to their friend. Bato turned back around and went into the woods, mumbling to himself. She looked at Kai, winked, and kicked the earth in his direction with her heel, creating a crack in the ground that travelled right over to where Bato was in the trees. The girls heard him scream, and they laughed again.

After more practice, her master thought she was ready to move to the next step.

“I want you to stop the rock." Gin explained, having positioned one on top of a short slope. "This one is more difficult, but it should help you get in the mindset of being an earthbender. You have to be solid. You have to be the wall that stops this boulder from crushing you. You think you’re up to the challenge?”

This time she was a little more nervous. Gin hopped up to where she positioned the boulder, which was bigger than she was. But what better way to learn than with the added incentive of trying not to get killed?

“Yea. I can do this.” She said to her friend and gave her a nod.

“Ok, here it comes.”

Kai took her widened stance as the boulder began to roll down the hill. She kept repeating Gin’s words in her head: be solid, be a wall, be the rock. She knew that she couldn’t be scared of it. She knew that she could do it.

When the boulder got close enough, Kai did what she did before. She stepped forward, firmly planted her foot down, and punched the boulder. This time, it broke apart completely instead of stopping. Pieces of rock flew past her, but she felt accomplished. Apparently, she was very good at breaking rocks; making them move couldn’t be that much harder.

* * *

A new town, a new day. As the trio made their way into the next Earth Kingdom village on their trip eastward, they decided to go into town. They left Koda on the outskirts of town; they were trying to lay low, but Kai remembered to bring her whistle just in case they got into trouble and needed to get out.

“You know what I’ve really been craving?” She said as they walked through the busy market. “Fire Nation food. Can we grab noodles while were in town?”

“I don’t think they’ll be the same here.” Bato said. “Remember that one time I dared you to get the Dragon Spicy noodles from Cho’s?

“That was, by far, the worst thing you have ever made me do!”

“No one made you do that.”

“You dared me! I had to!”

“What happened?” Gin asked.

“Cho’s had this competition where if you could eat the whole bowl, they would give you a voucher for free noodles for a year." She explained. "I ate the whole thing. It burned my taste buds so bad I couldn’t taste for three days after that.”

“Looking back on it, I’m surprised you didn’t start firebending after that. You looked like a dragon with steam coming out of your mouth when you were trying to eat it!”

“How can you go back to eating spicy food after that?” Gin asked.

“I never learn.” She said with a smile. "Come on, we've been training really hard for the past week and a half, we earned it."

* * *

“Prince Zuko, we’ve been walking around town all morning. Let’s take a break.”

Zuko was sick of his uncle complaining. Since they had set sail again, they decided to visit the villages near where they had found the Avatar. They checked the one closest and worked their way out from there. Today is was just he and his uncle; his men were searching an adjacent city to see if there were any leads. This was the third one on the map; so far, their search of this town had been fruitless.

"A man needs his rest, Zuko." His uncle reiterated after he ignored him. "If the Avatar is here, you need to keep up your strength."

 _Fat, lazy old man._ He thought. _Out of everyone in the family to get stuck with, it had to be him._

“Fine. We’ll break for lunch.”

Uncle Iroh perked up and directed Zuko to the nearest noodle shop. Before they even got to the counter, they immediately noticed the other guests in the shop. When he walked in, they were laughing and carrying on. 

“Watch this,” the male waterbender said. He then proceeded to waterbend the seaweed in his soup into a little figurine that rested on the surface of the table.

“Look at me,” he said in a mocking falsetto voice, “I’m Kai, and I’m too good to eat my seaweed even though I grew up eating it every day of my life.” He made the little figure cross its arms and the trio laughed. Kai began to say something when she noticed that he had walked in. Her smile vanished. It was on.

She flipped the table to give them cover. He punched forward and blasted the wooden table with fire anyway, knowing it would draw them out. For a moment, there was no movement. Then, the three came out from behind the table and went in different directions. The Avatar flipped the table back and hopped on top, the other waterbender ran for the kitchen, and the earthbender ran for the door. 

The earthbender was coming closest to him, so he tried to go after her first. As soon as she ran close, he shot fire at her. To his surprise, she slid and bent the earthen floor around herself. She avoided the fire and was now underground.

Ignoring her, he turned his attention to the Avatar, who had put out the fire on the table with the spilled soup. But now there was no water for her to bend to defend herself. He aimed for her legs to throw her off balance, but she was nimbler than he anticipated and jumped out of the way of the flame onto the adjacent table before it could hit her, carefully balancing herself so she didn't knock it over.

Before the Prince could get another shot off to her, there was a loud crash from the kitchen and some yelling. Water began flooding the floor. The other waterbender came out from the kitchen, and bended the water into a whip. He whipped at Zuko’s fists, trying to grab ahold of him. He was ready, shooting fire at it to prevent it from making contact with his hand. By this point, the Avatar also got the water she needed. She bended the spilled soup broth into steam, which quickly filled the small shop.

The prince could only see moving shadows in the thick cloud and decided it would be best to go outside; he knew that’s where the Avatar needed to go to escape. He ran through the front door and ran to the back of the shop through an alleyway. Before he reached it, he saw a flash of white running past: the Avatar and her friends were riding their giant dog through the streets. By the time he reached the back of the shop, they had already raced through the streets and were halfway out of town. All he could do was watch as the Avatar slipped away yet again.

Zuko could hear his uncle panting down the alleyway. He turned around and saw him jogging after him, out of breath.

“We know she’s close now. We're going back to the ship and readying the rhinos. We’ll search the forest until we find them."

“But—”

“No, uncle!" He snapped back at him. "We’re not breaking now, not with her so close.”

He shoved past his uncle and hurried back to the ship. Once through the alleyway, the owner of the shop came out of the door.

“Our of my way!” he pushed him down to the ground before he could protest.

Iroh came down the alley and helped the owner back to his feet.

“You’ll have to forgive my nephew, he’s usually a very nice young man.”

* * *

“After all that and I still didn’t get my noodles.”

Kai had just finished gathering firewood for the night. The trio always split up chores for the campsite: Bato was preparing the tents, and Gin had just come back with food from the forest to cook with the supplies they bought back in town. They had ridden a good way out of town in the hope that they wouldn’t be spotted. That guy with the scar really was serious about tracking her; it had been about two weeks since they had seen him, and she was hoping that she got through to him and had scared him off. Unfortunately, it looks like that wasn’t the case.

“At least we got out of there in one piece.” Bato said. “Thanks for whistling for Koda when you got out of there Gin. I really didn’t want to fight that guy in a crowded town.”

“No problem. You know, I think the three of us make a pretty good team.”

“Hey can you teach me how to do what you did today?” She asked her friend, sitting down by the kindling she gathered and starting the fire. “When you slid into the ground?”

“I think we need to focus on push a rock first before we get into how to become a badger-mole. You know what I did see in town though?” Gin procured a piece of paper that she had folded into her pocket. She opened it up, and there was a drawing of a girl with black hair in a bun.

“A wanted poster?” Bato asked after she showed it to the two waterbenders.

“Not just any wanted poster. This girl is a legend. Some say she’s just a myth, but either way she’s so cool. She’s supposed to be an amazing scam artist; that’s why the Fire Nation wants her, she probably swindled them.”

“Why is she called the Blind Bandit?” Kai asked.

“Yea, they call her that because she robs you blind and you never see it coming. Cool right?”

“I guess everyone’s doing their part to fight the Fire Nation, even thieves.” Bato said.

The three settled in for the night. It was especially cold, so they left the fire going until it ran out and slept peacefully under the full moon.

She woke from the peaceful sleep in the middle of the night. At first, she didn’t think much of it, but she heard more rustling from the woods and Koda started to growl, so she decided to get up and check it out. To her astonishment, komodo rhinos were breaking through into the clearing where they had made their encampment. It was the Prince.

There were six rhinos, each with one rider. This wouldn’t be easy, especially without a water source nearby. The Prince spoke up first.

“We have you surrounded. You have no way out and no water to bend. Come out with your hands up.”

Bato and Gin peeked out of their tents. They were all looking at her, waiting to see how she was going to react. She can’t believe she had been this stupid; they should have gone further away or had watches to make sure they didn’t get caught like this. The firebenders stayed on their rhinos.

Kai stepped forward toward the Prince and cracked her knuckles.

“You think I don’t have water? Think again.”

She bended the water out of the tree the rhinos had just felled. She wasted no time, jumping and twisting sideways to propel the water forward from her hand. She caught the Prince off guard, and he took the hit right in the chest and fell off his rhino. She snickered to herself for a second, but she stopped after he got back up. He was pissed, and soaking wet.

He exhaled smoke out of his nose like a bull and came charging. He jumped, did a front flip, and shot fire out of his feet in mid-air. She pulled water out of another tree adjacent to her and formed an ice wall to protect herself. He continued the onslaught, blasting more fire at her and slowly getting closer.

By this point her friends had joined the fray. Bato had more difficulty bending water from plants, so he was using his canteen of water to bend with as he went after another rider. Gin had gone after another rhino, trapping its back feet in the earth then smacking its backside. It bucked and knocked the rider off.

Kai’s ice shield had taken a beating. She melted the rest of it and went on the offensive, making a whip and going after the Prince’s feet. She managed to trip him up, but was soon as he was going down, he landed on his hands and spun in circle to shot fire from his feet. She was forced to take a step back. She bended the water from another tree and came at him from the right and the left with the two whips of water. He sprang forward to dodge, making him dangerously close to her. She cartwheeled backward, pulling the water back with her and wrapping it around her arms. She lashed out with it to try and grab his arms, but he shot fire at the water whips to block it from hitting him.

He was starting to get impatient. He rushed toward her with fire in his fist. When he was right in front of her and about to strike, she sidestepped and wrapped the water around his chest. He pinned his arms to his side, lifted him up, and threw him against another tree.

He didn’t hit it that hard, but it was enough to get him down. He was still wet, so she froze him to the tree.

“You rise with the sun, I rise with the moon. Tonight is a full moon, when my bending is the strongest. The only time you’ll have an advantage over me is if we’re fighting in a desert at midday, and by that time I’ll have mastered earthbending.”

He moved his arm to try and get another shot off on her, but she shot an ice spike right above his head.

“This is the second time I’ve had to say this: leave me alone.”

She jumped in midair, using the water on her arms to grab a branch on the tree he was frozen to. She hopped onto Koda and called for her friends. Thankfully, they had taken down a few of the rhinos without her. They tried to grab as much as they could and quickly fled into the forest.

* * *

His uncle had warned him against attacking at night and waiting until morning, and now he regretted not listening to his advice. He kept underestimating her and let her slip just out of reach. After being frozen by her a second time, it took him less time than before to thaw himself out and get back up. He had to remember to stay persistent, and to expect the unexpected. No one had fought a waterbender in a hundred years; of course it was going to be hard.

"Prince Zuko, we found this." The men had been searching the campsite as he dried himself off and got back on the rhino, ready to go back to the ship and study the maps again. He was hoping to find any indication of where they might be going, or something to barter with them. The soldier held a piece of jewelry in his hand; a necklace. He took it from him and studied it; the slender leather strand held a single white pearl. He recognized it immediately; it belonged to the Avatar. He knew that waterbenders used necklaces to signify engagements. The man she was travelling with must be her husband, although they slept in separate tents, which was odd. But that made the necklace a very important and potentially useful find.


	4. The Scroll

“I can’t believe I lost my necklace.”

The trio had travelled into another port city somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. They needed to replace most of their supplies after their campsite was raided, but thankfully they still had most of their money and their clothes. They lost their tents, the food, and the sleeping bags and had been shopping around all morning getting everything back. It cost them most of their Earth Kingdom money, but at least they were ready to go again.

“Well,” Gin said, holding up the last silver piece, “We could spend this on more food, but you could buy a new one if you wanted to?”

“No, its ok. We should probably save it.”

“We should probably stay out of cities for a while.” Bato added as they followed him through the crowded market. “But while we’re here, let’s check that place out.” He pointed over to a ship on the docks, with large ornate orange sails.

“Why there?” She asked him, taking a look over the creepy looking ship.

“It looks cool.” He responded simply before trotting up the gangplank. She just shrugged and followed her friend.

The ship had an assortment of the weirdest things: stuffed exotic animals, statues with jewels in the eyes, used weaponry, old dusty tapestries. All was unbelievably marked up and overpriced, and the merchants looked just as shady. There was a box full of old scrolls that she meandered through as her friends examined the rest of the lot.

“Hey, look at this.” She motioned to Gin as she unfurled one of the scrolls.

“It’s an earthbending scroll.” Her friend examined it excitedly. “Look at these illustrations, they’re beautiful.” 

She was right: the forms displayed on the scroll showed five basic techniques. They showed full body movements, even coloring the earth the mannequin was bending to make it stand out more. The positions of the arms and legs were clear, the illustrations so fluid and well-drawn it looked like they were coming to life.

She folded the scroll back up and went over to the head merchant behind the table; a gruff looking captain with a wide brimmed hat and a green iguana parrot on his shoulder.

“How much for the scroll?” She asked, leaning her elbows on the table.

“It’s not for sale.” He said bluntly. “I have a buyer in Ba Sing Se for it, unless you can beat his price of two hundred gold pieces.”

“Where’d you get it from?” Gin asked, coming over to the counter.

“Let’s just say I got it at a very reasonable price out west: free.” He gave a course, hearty laugh at his own joke as his pet stared them down. She decided it would be best to put it back…unless…

“Come on, let’s get out of here. Its not worth it.” She said to her friends before turning around and leaving. She tucked the scroll into her jacket when she was turned around and placed another scroll lying around into the slot where she had taken the valuable one from. They quietly made their way back outside and down the gangplank and made their way out of town.

They camped far into the woods that evening, away from the city and the river that ran through it. They didn't want anymore unwanted interruptions.

“We should be safe out here for a few days to get some training in.” Gin said as she set up the fire for the night.

“Practice just got a lot more fun.” She gave her friend a sly smile, opening her jacket up and revealing the scroll.

“You stole it?” Bato got up from setting up the new tents. “What if they come after us?”

“Where do you think he got it from?” She gestured with the scroll in her hands back to where the town was. “He stole it from and earthbender. Besides, they’re not gonna know who we are or where we went with it; its fine.”

"I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile." He replied.

"We are, but this is a real earthbending scroll with real earthbending forms. We need this if we're going to learn. What do you want me to do, bring it back?"

"No," He said defeated. "But just don't make a habit of it."

* * *

“Prince Zuko, look at this statue, isn’t he handsome?!”

His uncle had tracked him through another backwater town, this time because he lost his lotus tile for pai sho. Why it was so important was beyond him; pai sho was a boring game for boring old men like his uncle. He dragged him through the markets all afternoon, not wanting to buy a whole other set and instead buying everything else for sale. It was infuriating, and a massive waste of time. All it had done was set him back in his search so his uncle could stare at some stupid monkey statue on a pirate ship.

One of the other pirates came on board, leaning up against the counter and putting his swords away.

“We lost the blue-eyed girl, and the others she was travelling with. They must have slipped the scroll out of town.”

“The girl,” He walked over to the pirate captain. “She have brown hair, blue clothes, travelling with a short Earth Kingdom girl?”

“Why, she your girlfriend or something?” The captain asked with a hearty laugh.

“No.” He snapped. “But I think we can make a trade: I need the girl, and you need the scroll.”

* * *

“Which one should we try first?” She asked her friend the next morning, unfurling the scroll on a rock. The two girls had gotten up early, excited to give it a try. Gin was a great teacher, but she admitted she wasn’t a professional; this was going to be a lot of fun.

“Do you think we should just do down the scroll?” Gin asked her, pointing to the first illustration. “Like, we try this one out first then go down?”

“Good idea. You go first.”

“Ok.” Her friend got into position, widening her legs and firmly planting her feet on the ground. “It looks like this one is all about momentum. You swing your arms from back to forward and twist your body.” She watched as she demonstrated, moving her arms from back behind her head to forward in front of her face, pulling up a chunk of earth as she did.

“Nice!” She said with a smile. “Let me give it a shot.” She mimicked her form, swinging her arms around her body and turning at the hip, but she had a bit less success, pulling up a smaller chuck of rock.

“Your movement is too fluid,” Her friend explained. “You need to keep your stance strong and your center of gravity low while you move.”

The two practiced all afternoon, memorizing the new forms as they worked them into their normal training routine. It was a lot of fun, so much so that she couldn’t sleep that night. It was one of the most fun earthbending days she had so far, and she felt like she had learned so much. She wanted to try and get a leg up on her friend for tomorrow, so she went out into the woods to practice a few of the forms on her own to really nail them. She left behind her jacket but grabbed her boots, tying her hair up so that it wouldn’t get in the way. The biggest problem she kept having was keeping her form solid and rigid; waterbending was so fluid, you were constantly shifting your weight. It was difficult to keep herself in the mindset of keeping her weight low and her stance strong, and that was what she decided to practice. She found a nice quiet spot far away from camp and practiced the movements without the earthbending, watching her center of gravity while shifting her arms and feet. 

She tried the hardest movement, the second one, but with earthbending this time. It took her forever to get it this afternoon because there was so much movement involved. She swung her arms from behind her on one side to in front and opposite side as she took two steps forward, bending a rock up before twisting her body around to throw it at a tree with a crash.

“Hey, not bad.” She said quietly to herself and reset her stance. “But you’re still not putting your feet in the right spot.”

She thought she heard something rustling in the woods behind her; it was too loud to be a mouse or something small. She went over to check it out, crouching behind a bush and peeking through the woods to see what was there. She saw a group of mercenaries, and in the center was the pirate from yesterday, still with his iguana parrot. She froze, realizing how bad of a spot she was in.

_I have to get back and warn the others._

She tried to slink back slowly at first, keeping quiet until she got far enough away from them before standing up and turning around to make a quick escape. Unfortunately, she ran straight into the person she wanted to see the least. She gasped and tensed up as he grabbed her wrists and pulled her toward him so she couldn’t fight back.

“I’ll save you from the pirates.” The Prince told her calmly, their faces just inches apart.

* * *

The Avatar didn’t put up much of a fight when she was surrounded by his men and the pirates. He had her arms tied behind her back to a small tree in the center of the clearing in the forest. Even with just a little water she could put up a fight, so they kept her far away from their ships along the riverbank and around the trees where it was harder for her to fight. She had a canteen on her that they also made sure was drained, but far away from where she was being held.

“I hope she’s not your girl,” One of the pirates turned to him as he tied her up. “She’s way too pretty for you, even if she does dress like a man.”

“Thank you,” She dryly replied, tilting her head over to look at the pirate that spoke up as he walked away. “For managing to make this situation even worse than it already was.”

“Ok little lady,” The pirate captain walked up to her. “We know you took the scroll; we just want to know where you and your little friends stashed it.”

“I didn’t take your stupid scroll.” She snapped back at him. 

Getting annoyed, he grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled her forward. “Where is it?” He asked her again.

She craned her neck forward until their faces were almost touching. “Have you checked the lost and found?” She inquired quietly, keeping her tone cool and calm this time.

His face twisted into a scowl, and he let go of her clothes and backhanded her across the mouth, grabbing her shirt once again to shake her up. She took it like a champ, keeping herself calm and staring him down.

“Hey!” He commanded to the pirate, putting himself between the two of them to break it up. He put his hands on both of their shoulders, shoving the pirate back and her to the tree. He gave the captain a look, and he stood down. She turned her head to the side and spat out the blood from her now split lip onto the ground.

He wanted to try and keep her from being damaged any further. Its not like he cared for her wellbeing, she was probably going to die as soon as he turned her over to his father, but he didn’t want her getting beat by the pirates. The most reliable way to coax information out of someone was with kindness, not intimidation. Figuring he should at least try to help the pirates out to honor their deal, he got another idea.

“Try to understand,” he approached her, keeping his voice calm and soft as he circled around the tree, “they need to get back something they’ve lost. Perhaps in exchange, I can restore something you’ve lost.”

He procured the engagement necklace he found at her campsite the last time they’d fought. He was behind her now, and gently placed it around her neck. He could see her tense slightly as it touched her, relaxing when she realized what he was doing. He removed it just as quickly as he had shown it to her, holding it in his hand as he walked away from her.

“My necklace…” She said quietly, looking wishfully at it in his hand. He smiled to himself, pleased that it worked and that he could manage to manipulate her with just one simple gesture. She quickly snapped out of it, straining against her restraint and snarling back at him once again. “Give that back!”

“I would love to return this to you," He taunted her, "but they need to know where your friends are. If you tell them, I’ll make sure they don’t get hurt.”

“Fuck you!” She spat blood as she screamed at him, wrenching herself forward.

 _So much fire, over a stupid necklace._ He thought to himself. _It's not even worth anything_. Either way, it was nice to see her lose her cool mystique that she usually had. It felt good to be in control with her for once. She quickly toned it down; wincing from hurting her wrists and settling down to lean against the tree.

“Enough of this necklace garbage.” The captain grumbled. “Men, search the woods, it’s around here somewhere.”

* * *

They kept her tied up all night and alone with the firebenders as they looked for her friends. The captain stayed behind to make sure the Prince honored their deal and didn’t run off with her. More than anything, she hoped they wouldn’t get dragged into the mess she made, but it looked like it was inevitable. The pirates finally returned at sunrise, bringing Gin and Bato in with hands tied.

“We have what we want, no thanks to you.” The captain sneered to the Prince, holding up the scroll in hands.

“You can keep her friends,” The Prince told them, “I just want the girl.”

She saw Bato turning toward the captain and start to open his mouth.

_Oh no, here we go; what's he going to get us into next?_

“Do you really want to just let him have the Avatar and just leave with a stupid piece of parchment?”

“Don’t listen to him,” the Prince shouted and pointed to him, “He’s trying to turn us against each other.”

“The girl is the Avatar?” The captain turned to him and asked.

“Sure is!” He replied.

“Yea,” She shouted over to them, catching on to his plan. “Why do you think he doesn’t want his precious prize damaged? You know how much I’m worth to the Fire Nation?”

“Shut your mouth, you filthy peasant.” He snapped at her.

“Yea, Bato, you really should shut your mouth.” Gin mumbled to their friend.

“I’m just saying, its bad business sense.” He told the pirates. “Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for her; you guys would be set for life.”

The pirates nodded in agreement with him, drawing their weapons.

“You’re going to regret breaking a deal with me.” The Prince growled as he and his soldiers shot fire toward them. The pirates quickly lept backward out of the way to safety, pulling her friends with them. One rushed forward, dodging the fire blasts and throwing a series of smoke bombs at the firebender’s feet. She couldn’t see anything as the clearing filled with smoke, and figured it was a good time to make her way out. With the little bit she could move her hands, she extracted some of the water from the trunk of the tree into a sharp spike of ice to cut her hands free. She pulled more water out of the tree, putting it in her canteen before running into the smoke to find her friends. She managed to find Gin, trying to cut her tied wrists free on a knife someone dropped. She cut her free before grabbing her arm and helping her up, the two running out of the smoke together. Somehow Bato made it out himself, and the three were reunited. She didn’t have Koda’s whistle on her but she knew she wasn’t far, so she put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loud hoping that she would hear. 

In the meantime, they had bigger problems. The Prince and the pirate captain emerged from the smoke, the two locked together in a fight. They broke away from each other once they realized she had gotten herself out. The pirate captain came at her first, and she sidestepped his blade keeping her arms at a right angle close to her sides. After he passed by her, she widened her legs and swung her arms upward, pulling up a rock from the ground. She threw it at him, hitting him in the chest and knocking him down. The Prince came at her next; she remembered where he stashed her necklace, so instead of attacking him she pulled the water out of her canteen into a whip and took it out of his pocket. She retracted the water and grabbed her necklace as Bato stepped forward, bending the water that she was using to shoot ice at him to keep him back. It stopped him for a moment to swat them aside with his gauntlets before kicking forward and blasting fire at them. Gin looked over at her and the two lunged forward, lowing their arms to the ground, then shifting their weight and arms upward to create a massive wall of earth to block them from attacking further.

“Hey, nice job!” She shouted over to her friend. The pirate captain got back up and drew his sword and started to attack again, but he was intercepted by a snarling polar bear dog that jumped out of the woods. Koda bit the arm that held his blade, making him yell in pain and drop it before she shook him violently and threw him aside. The three hopped on her back and ran out of the scene.

* * *

“That looks like it stings,” Gin told her, pointing to her lip, “Do you want something for that?”

The three ran far away from the scene, grabbing their new supplies before heading out. The pirates didn't touch any of it when they took Bato and Gin from camp; all they took was the scroll. As soon as they got out, she put her necklace back on and kept it there; she was never taking it off when she slept again.

“Nah, I got it.” She pulled the water out of her canteen, putting it to her lip and began the healing.

“Did the pirate do that?” Bato asked, and she nodded back to him. It didn't take her long to patch it up, and she put the water away.

“I owe you guys and apology. I put us all in danger just for a scroll, and I shouldn’t have messed with the pirates. Who needs it anyway.”

“Is that really how you feel?” Bato asked with a smile as he pulled it out of his shirt.

"The scroll!" She said excitedly, reaching over to him to grab it. He pulled it out of reach, holding it high up in the air.

"First," he said, "what did you learn?"

"Stealing is wrong." She replied, and he gave it back to her. "Unless it's from pirates, the Fire Nation, or your old master."

* * *

“Colonel Shinu, your archers are far superior to what I expected.”

“Yes, the Yuyan archers are some of the finest in the world. You’ll find their skills are truly legendary. The Yuyan can pin a fly to a tree a hundred meters away, and not kill it.”

Commander Zhao watched the team practice. One archer shot a bullseye, then split the arrow down the middle, then split it again with a third. Another was blindfolded, then shot an apple thrown up in the air.

“It’s a shame you keep them here. Think of how useful they could be in this war.”

“It’s not a shame at all, Commander. Under my command, they have carried out high level, secret operations for the Fire Lord. Any failures are rejected immediately.”

“So, you won’t honor my request to take them over?”

“No, I won’t. I won’t relinquish some of the Fire Nations finest soldiers to you because of rumors. They will do better here then chasing your vanity project. I hope you understand.”

Suddenly, a messenger hawk arrived. It was for the Commander, straight from the war room.

“Looks like I’ve been promoted to Admiral. My request is now an order.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! First order of business was that I just wasn't happy with the beginning of the series, so I rewrote the first four chapters, reworked some things, and added this one in. I might do further rewrites of the early stuff later on to really clean it up but I want to actually progress with this too, so that's what I'll update this Sunday. With COVID going around I have a lot of spare time to write, so that's one bonus. Anyway, I hope everyone is safe, and thanks for reading.
> 
> -nein


	5. The Spirit World

The trio continued their journey eastward into the Earth Kingdom. It had been several weeks since they had first departed, and winter was in full swing now. The forest they traversed had a fresh cover of snow on the ground from the previous night. However, there was something else new and unexpected: the forest had been burned.

“You see this every once in a while, after there’s been a battle. The Fire Nation burns everything in their path.” Gin explained. “Firebenders bring nothing but destruction. All fire does is hurt people. It’s a barbaric element.”

“Firebending isn’t the element of destruction.” Kai tried to argue. “I know it’s hard to imagine, but fire can bring life and warmth. That’s what its supposed to be about, not this.” 

She reached out and touched one of the lower branches of a passing tree as it crumbled to soot in her hand. As they walked further into the abandoned forest the blanket of snow became thicker, reaching up to their calves. Even Koda was beginning to have trouble getting through the snow. They reached a clearing and decided to camp there for the night. It was still early, the sun had barely begun to set, but with the snow getting thicker and the day growing colder, they wanted to warm up. After their last battle, they had taken more precautions to not get caught: Bato covered their tracks in the snow, they put fires out before they went to bed, they tried to make their campsites easier to tear down.

“With this snow we don’t even need the tents,” Bato said. “We can just pretend we’re back in the North Pole again.”

He bended the snow into a nice little igloo for himself; Kai did the same. Gin preferred her usual method using a nice cozy tent. The two waterbenders bended the snow away from the clearing so they could set up a fire and Gin could set up her tent on the ground instead of on the snow.

“Hey, do you hear that?” Bato said while roasting some chicken that they had bought over the fire. The sun had gone down by this point, and it was pitch black. The thin clouds only allowed a sliver of moonlight through on the cold, winter night.

“No, what?” She asked.

“Listen.”

Everyone was silent. For a moment, the only thing that could be heard was the cracking of wood in their fire. She heard some tree branches snapping from the left of the clearing. The trio stood up and prepared for a fight. To their surprise, Koda came bounding out of the woods with a massive stick in her mouth.

“You scared me to death!” She relaxed and walked over to her. “Don’t run off on me like that.”

The others chuckled as Koda bounded through the snow with her stick. She gave it a long toss into the trees. After a few seconds, she ran back with it in her mouth.

“Look at you, you’re covered in soot.” She said, licking her finger and trying to wipe off some of the dirt Koda had on her face from sniffing around the burnt trees. After a few more throws, she took the stick and tried to make her settle down. They ate, put out the campfire for the night, then split up to get some rest.

“Hey can I talk to you for a minute?”

She had already taken off her jacket and let down her hair and was getting ready for the night when she heard Gin at the opening to her igloo.

“Sure, come on in. What’s on your mind?”

“Well, I just wanted to ask. We’ve been getting a lot closer the past few weeks, and by the way you’re doing very well with your earthbending.”

“Thank you. But I can tell that’s not what you wanted to talk about.”

Gin sighed and sat still, holding her knees. “You’re right. I wanted to ask you something about Bato.”

“What about him?”

“Well, you two seem really close. You both left the North Pole together, you were in the iceberg together.”

“We aren’t together.”

Gin seemed surprised. “You’re not?”

“No, we’re not, and we never have been.” She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I guess its probably time I told you something. First, I’d like to say that I didn’t bring this up before for a reason. Its just a long story, and its not something that we like to talk about very much.” 

She adjusted herself so she was sitting cross legged, her hands on her thighs, and told her story. “Bato and I were best friends when we were growing up. We were inseparable, except when we had to go to work. But neither of us really wanted anything more than that, if you get me? He’d go off with other girls, and I’d go off with other guys. Our parents didn’t really see it that way that we did. The Water Tribe had arranged marriages set up by the parents. So, when we were both around sixteen, they told us we were going to get married.”

“From the way that you’re making it sound, you didn’t get married.”

“No, we didn’t. That was right around the time when I started getting fed up with the way things were there. One night I just snapped, and I decided to run away. Bato caught me before I left and thankfully, he felt the same way. We were both really worried that it would ruin our friendship, but it ended up making us a lot closer. We decided to just leave together. He agreed to teach me how to fight, he got away from his parents for a while, and we both avoided getting married. It was a pretty good deal.”

She brushed her hair off of her neck with her hand and put her thumb under her pearl choker.

“In the water tribe, the boy gives the girl a necklace to symbolize their engagement and love. He never made me one. I made this for myself when I was on Ember Island. It was supposed to symbolize that I’m married to myself, I guess. I was sixteen and had just ran away from home, I thought I was clever.”

The two girls laughed about it together.

“Why are you asking if Bato’s single?”

Gin smiled. “I was just curious.”

“If you want to, go for it. I don’t really think you’re his type, but I’m not going to stop you.”

 _It feels like so long ago_. She thought after her friend was satisfied with her answer and had left for the night. _It was over a hundred years ago but living at the North Pole feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed since then._ She tried to push it all out of her mind, took the ribbon out of her top knot to let her hair down for the night, and went to sleep.

* * *

A beautiful sunny day on the beach, what could be a better way to spend your eighteenth birthday? A little surfing in the afternoon when the waves were just right, getting food with all of her friends, and ending the day with a beach party. There was a large crowd; everyone knew the little waterbender girl that hung out on the island. Everyone there loved her. She was smiling and happy, her friend was swallowing fire and doing party tricks. She felt a firm hand touch her shoulder; it was one of the water sages.

The bright, happy scene melted away. She was on the Northern Water Tribe’s ship that had docked on the beach. She was alone, being scolded by a waterbending master and the sages. They told her how irresponsible she had been, that they would have trained her if she had stayed and waited until her sixteenth birthday. She didn’t believe them. The Chief came in with his son and continued to berate her. She had broken the rules and learned waterbending, she was no longer welcome in her old home. Bato protested, but the Chief told him that he would return home and face his destiny without her.

She saw herself, outside of her own body, in a fury. Her eyes were glowing, the sea around the ship was raging, the wind swept like a hurricane. The partygoers on the beach ran in fear, the waterbenders cowered at the monster they had unleashed. She opened her mouth to shout…

She woke in a panic, covered in sweat.

_I guess I’m not as over it as I thought I was._

She got out of her sleeping roll and sat in the dark for a few minutes, trying to catch her breath and calm herself down. Eventually realizing she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, she decided to get up and stretch her legs. She grabbed her coat and boots and went outside into the cold winter night. She took a few steps outside and started toward the woods. She heard a whine next to the snow tent she had made.

“Oh Koda.” Upon hearing her name, Koda thumped her tail as Kai walked over to her. She buried her face in the fur around her neck and gave her a big hug. “You stay here.” She said, pulling away. “I’m going for a walk.” Koda wined again and licked her face. She giggled and gave her a kiss on the nose, then walked out of their campsite and into the burnt forest.

The forest was eerily still that night. The only sounds the Avatar heard were the sound of her boots crunching the snow beneath her feet and the crack of branches as the wind blew through them. The forest was completely lifeless except for her. She wasn’t really sure why she was doing this, or where she was going. She felt like she just needed to get out for a minute. She finally stumbled upon a small clearing in the trees with a frozen pond. The clouds had temporarily dissipated and allowed the moon to peak through. The moonlight reflecting from the ice and the snow surrounding it made it look serene and peaceful.

 _Maybe I should try meditating_. She thought. _I am the Avatar, that’s what I do, right?_

She sat, cross-legged by the pond. She hadn’t meditated before, but she tried to clear her mind and focus entirely on her breathing. After a while, the cold from the forest melted away, and she was transported to a warm meadow in spring. She opened her eyes, and it looked like she really was there.

 _I must be dreaming again._ She thought to herself, deciding to take a look around. The lilies around her were blooming in beautiful golds and reds. There was a man sitting beneath a tree not far from where she was standing. She carefully walked through the flowers, being careful not to step on any, and walked over to him.

“Are you lost?” he asked. The old man looked vaguely familiar, like she had seen him before in passing. He was an airbender, tall and thin with a long gray beard and arrow tattoos on his forehead and arms, wearing a monks red robe and beads.

“I think so. I’m not really sure where I am.” She looked around at the warm spring scene again, trying to remember any landmarks that looked familiar.

“The meadow is beautiful, but I know it is not the destination you are looking for.”

He motioned with his hand to a path toward their left. She followed next to him as he led her down the path.

“Excuse me, but how do you know where I’m going? I’m not even sure when I’m supposed to go.”

“That’s precisely the point, and that’s why you’re here. I’ve been hoping to see you, we need to talk.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Kai said, confused.

“I am one of your past lives.” The airbender explained. “I am Avatar Chetan, your most recent past life.”

“I didn’t know I could talk to my past lives.”

“You can, both here and in the physical world.”

“I’m in the Spirit World, aren’t I?”

“Correct. My first time here was also an accident. I went out to meditate in the forest at the Northern Air Temple and was gone for three days. The monks thought I had gotten myself eaten by a platypus bear.”

The two laughed as they continued to walk. The path that turned through the flowers of the meadow began to lead them through a forest. The spirits living in the trees began to emerge; a few glowing dragonfly-bunnies flew above her head.

“I am taking you to the reflecting pool in this forest. Here you still see the future, and your own future. Keep in mind that we see things that may not happen here, it only shows us the future that is currently set in motion.”

They reached their destination, a lake that was as smooth as glass.

“But,” he said, “If I throw a rock into the pool,”

He picked up a pebble, and tossed it in. The stillness was disturbed, and the pond was filled with ripples.

“You can see the change that one little pebble caused. It is the same with the future. One little action can change its outcome. Look at the water and tell me what you see.”

The water had stopped rippling. She saw a giant fireball that lit up the sky. The whole world was engulfed in flame. The world was burning. A man sat on a throne surrounded by fire. He laughed as he watched the world burning beneath him.

“This is the future if you do not end this war.” He turned from the pool and faced her. “I should have ended it when I was alive, but I was not able to. Unfortunately, you must fix my mistakes. If you do not defeat him before Sozin’s Comet arrives, this will be the fate of the world.”

“How long do I have, and what’s the comet do?”

“Sozin’s Comet appears every 100 years. Fire Lord Sozin used it to start the war, 100 years ago, and now Fire Lord Ozai will use it to end the war. It will arrive by the end of this summer. Mastering all four elements takes years of practice and discipline, but you only have a few months.”

“How am I supposed to do all of this? Its winter and I barely know how to earthbend and I have to master all of the elements by summer? How am I supposed to even find a firebending teacher when they’re at war with the whole world?!”

“If anyone can do this, you can. You might feel like you’re inadequate or insignificant, like that little pebble I threw into the water. But look at all the change it caused. You are the same; you were directionless and desperate to have a better life for yourself for so many years, and now look at you. Look at how much you’ve grown, and how much control you have over your life. Now you have your destiny before you to achieve.”

Kai sat down on a rock by the pond and stared out over it. The vision in the water had subsided, but that didn’t help put her at ease. _How is one person supposed to end this war?_

“Unfortunately, you don’t have time to take this in right now. Back in the physical world, your body has been disturbed. You must return to it, and hurry.”

She looked back up at the old airbender and the scene began to fade away into mist.

“Wait! Please I have so many more questions that I need answered!” she called out into the smoke, but no one answered.

When she finally woke up, she couldn’t move. Her arms and legs were bound, she was gagged, and she was in a net. From what she could tell, she was being carried by a group of soldiers, but where they were going, she did not know. There was nothing she could do at this point to escape. All she could do was sit back and find out where she was going.

* * *

The Prince had been meditated all night. He always had difficulty sleeping, especially now that he had found the Avatar, but tonight was particularly rough. His uncle advised him to meditate when he couldn’t sleep, and tonight he had found it peaceful. The candles around his room flickered gently as he cleared his mind. With each breath their flames rose, with each exhale the flames subsided.

“Prince Zuko, I have some news that you may want to hear.” His uncle said from the doorway.

“If it’s not about the Avatar, then I don’t want to hear it.”

“It’s Zhao. His ship was spotted nearby.”

The flames in the candles flared up high.

“What’s he doing here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Editing sucks, so only one chapter this week. This and the next are longer than usual anyway, so it works out. The more I write of the second book, the more I'm realizing how short the first one is, so posting two chapters at a time will probably be exclusive to the first book. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday and and happy New Year. Thanks for reading.  
> -nein


	6. The Blue Spirit

Kai had finally reached her mysterious destination: a Fire Nation fortress. The fortress was secure, with three walls with a central pagoda. The walls were coated in iron, making them impossible to bend. The central pagoda was also iron. She was taken up the tower into a chamber, and her wrists and legs were chained to the wall and floor. She had no water to bend here, and very little earth. She decided it was best to sit back and wait; she let them chain her there without struggle.

After a while, a man came in. He was wearing armor similar to what the Prince had worn when she first met him, so she figured he was someone high-ranking in the military.

“Well, you were certainly a lot easier to find and catch than I was expecting. It’s a wonder why Prince Zuko couldn’t do it himself.”

“You couldn’t even catch me yourself, you had someone else do it for you.” She said, snidely.

The man sneered as he continued to approach her.

“If I were you, I would hold your tongue. You’re my prisoner now. Soon I will deliver you to the Fire Lord. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you alive for now. But just barely.”

By this point he was close to her face, mocking her. She spit at him, and it hit his eye.

“Insolent girl,” he said with a growl, trying to wipe it away. “You’re going to regret that. You’re going to rot in here.”

He turned around and stormed away. She was all alone now with no way out. She tried to bend some water out of the air, but with her hands restrained it was difficult to get any. This was going to take a while.

* * *

“For the last time Uncle, I’m not playing the tsungi horn.”

The Prince was once again alone in his room when he heard his uncle knock.

“Are you sure? It’s music night. Come out and have some fun.”

Silence.

“Or, you can sit alone in your room, in the dark.”

_Why is Zhao here? Did he know more that what he let on?_

After he heard his uncle leave, he decided to clear his head and take a walk; maybe that would help him more than meditating has. He quietly snuck out of his room, taking care to avoid the deck where his uncle and the crew were playing, and vanished into the cold, dark forest.

* * *

Kai had been alone for hours now. Her cell had no windows, but she could feel the rise of the moon coming; she had been there all day. And so far, she didn’t have much success with her escape. She was trying to freeze the chain with her breath, hoping it would get brittle and break. It was slow going, and hard work. She was so tired, she barely heard the bang outside of her door. She turned her attention away from the chain for a second and listened. There was another bang and a shout this time. Someone was outside.

When the door opened she was expecting the smug officer from earlier, but this was someone she didn’t recognize. They were wearing a blue _oni_ mask and a black clothing, and he was carrying twin broadswords on his back.

“Who are you?” Kai said, furrowing her brow.

The masked man put his forefinger on the mask’s mouth, motioning her not to speak. He approached and drew his swords. Kai turned her face away and closed her eyes, certain that this was going to end badly and bracing for the pain. He brought his swords downward, onto the chains attached to her wrist. Surprised, she opened her eyes and looked at the man in the mask standing in front of her, inches from her face. She brought her hands in front of her body, and he cut the cuffs attached to her wrist. He slashed downward and cut the cuffs from her feet. He cocked his head toward the door; he was breaking her out.

“Wait,” she whispered. Now that her hands free, she could try and gather some water from the air to bend. The masked man took a few steps backward watched as she bended, pulling the water from the air. She felt so much more graceful now that she was free, reaching her arms above her head and moving them downward toward her sides in a long arc to pull out the water. She pulled out enough to wrap around her hands like gloves and nodded to her rescuer. The masked man opened the door, and the real fight began.

Down the corridor, two soldiers tried to stop them. The swordsman cut the spear one was using then kicked him down, while she bended the water from her hands into a thin whip, wrapping it around the other’s leg. She pulled forward, and he lost his balance and landed on his back. The masked man raced down the corridors, she followed close behind. 

When they reached the first courtyard, the two split up and took out the several soldiers in the yard. She went left, turning the water in one of her hands into ice spears and shooting it at a guard’s pant leg to secure it to the ground. Another guard came running toward her and shot fire from his fist. She threw her remaining water at the fire to put it out then kicked him in the chest to knock him down. The swordsman went right; he grabbed the hand of a soldier carrying a longsword and forced him to drop it. A spearman came running toward him, and he threw the soldier at him to slow him down. He met up with the Avatar at the first gate and the two made it through.

Before they could reach the second gate, it was closed. They were immediately surrounded by a dozen armored firebenders, who pointed their fists at them, with a group of spearmen behind. On the top of the wall, the officer who she had spoken to earlier called down to them.

“Give it up, we have you surrounded. There is no escape from my stronghold.”

The firebenders began to close in, forcing the two together so their shoulders were touching.

“I’m going to give us some cover.” She whispered to him. “Get the soldiers out of the way and meet at the gate.”

He nodded. She finally had a good excuse to practice her earthbending, and she decided to use it. She widened her stance and put both of her arms in front of her, palms down. The ground shook, and when she raised her palms pieces of dirt and dust went flying upward, creating a dense cloud in the courtyard. The military base had no grass or trees in it, so it was pretty easy to kick up some dust. Once the troops were coughing and visibility was low, she made a run for the gate, shoving past a few men on the way while they were trying to figure out what was going on.

The gate was iron so it couldn’t be bended open, but it was mechanical so it could be forced. She bended the earth under the gate into a pillar to try and force it upward. It was difficult and she struggled under the weight of it, but it began to work. When she had forced it up enough to crawl under, the masked man arrived and slid under. She did the same.

“Archers, fire!”

As she and the swordsman were on the ground, arrows from the outermost wall rained down upon them. She rolled to her left on top of the masked man, bringing the earth with her to cocoon the two and shield them from the incoming arrows. She positioned her hands on either side of his head, palms downward, and supported her weight on her toes to the right of his body. There was a moment of silence and stillness between the two; the shouts of the soldiers outside were muffled, the arrows hitting the earth that surrounded them made a soft thud. She could only hear her own breathing through her mouth, and his beneath her. Her loose curls fell around her face as she looked downward at the blue mask around his. Realizing she was in a compromising position, she slowly moved her hand away from the other side of his face so that she was not longer on top of him. She tucked her feet underneath her chest and stood up, stretching her arms outward to widen the earthen shield. He stood up next to her and she bended the earth to accommodate him as well. She began to walk in the direction of the last gate slowly, bending the earth around them like a wave to cover her and the masked man.

When they were close to the wall, she quickly put down the shield and used the earth beneath her to launch the two upward onto the metal wall. The archers shot at the two that were now unprotected, the swordsman deflected the arrows. Once on top of the wall, the two faced opposite directions, back to back. She took a deep breath and exhaled ice, freezing the closest archers so they were unable to shoot. The masked man tried to cut as many bows as he could and deflect the arrows, but he was having difficulty. Once enough were incapacitated, Kai decided it was best to get out. Thankfully, the snow outside the compound hadn’t been cleared, so she bended it into a ramp to slide down. The two made their way down the wall safely using the ramp and were out in front of the compound.

Before she could run away into the forest and escape, the masked man grabbed her waist and pulled her in front of him, putting one of his swords to her throat. She gasped in shock, nervous of he cold steel at her throat. She put her arm around his, trying to remove the blade from her neck, but he removed his hand from her waist and put the other sword to her throat.

“What the hell?” she hissed at him, struggling to get herself out of his grip. Then, she looked back up to the wall; the military officer from before and rallied some of the archers, and they were aiming straight at them. He slowly began walking backward keeping the archers in sight, and she had no choice but to follow in his footsteps. It felt like she had been trapped in his arms, swords at her throat and walking backward into the darkness, for hours. She couldn’t turn her head to see how far they had gone, but the lights of the fortress slowly began to fade. No soldiers on the outside of the fortress had tried to stop them, and she had stopped struggling and accepted her situation has a human shield. It seemed like the Fire Nation didn’t want to kill her that badly after all.

She heard something sing past her face, and the swords around her throat loosened. She looked behind, and saw the masked man falling to the ground. An arrow struck him in the mask, the only opening the archer had. The arrow wasn’t imbedded in his mask, so it probably only knocked him out. Fearing what the Fire Nation would do to him, Kai tried her best to pick him up. He was a lot heavier than she was, so she wrapped his arm around her shoulder, struggling to pick him up off of the ground. She couldn’t run with him like this, so she used the snow instead. She froze a section ahead of herself into ice, then used it to skate along. She kept it up for as long as she could, disappearing from the Fire Nation prison and racing through the forest looking for somewhere safe. 

After a while, she reached a frozen river in the forest. She set the masked man down as gently as she could, then collapsed next to him in the snow. She was completely out of breath, sore, and exhausted, but at least they were safe.

“You have a lot of guts breaking into prison to get me out, then nearly slitting my throat,” she said with a smile in between breaths, looking at the stranger lying beside her. He was still knocked out; it was hard to tell how much time had passed, but the arrow must have hit him hard. After she caught her breath, she sat up and got a look at the person that rescued her. Most of his body was covered in thick black clothing, except his face and hands. It was difficult to tell his figure with the clothing and mask, but he was broad shouldered and well built from what she could tell. He was taller than her by at least a head, and probably double her weight judging by how hard it was to carry him there. Still, there was something bothering her about him; something seemed familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She reached down behind his head and untied the mask, then removed it from his face. She recoiled in shock, nearly throwing his mask once she saw the scar.

_You have to be kidding me._

She put the mask down next to his face and stood up. She tried to contemplate her next move, but she was at a loss.

_He probably only did this to get back at that other officer. But what am I going to do with him now?_

She looked down at the Prince, still sleeping in the snow. Usually the two were so caught up in fighting, she had never really gotten a good look at him. Her eyes always went to the scar on his face.

_I wonder how he got that._

He looked peaceful when he was asleep. The reflection of moonlight off the snow he was resting in made him look serene. Despite the scar, his face looked regal and calm.

_I should just end this now. I should just toss him in the cold water and finish this game of cat and mouse._

Against her better judgement, she didn’t. She sighed to herself and looked up at the sky, wondering what she was going to do now.

* * *

When Zuko awoke, he had a pounding headache. He was freezing too, his fingers felt numb. Forgetting where he was and what he was doing, he sat up and breathed hot air into his clasped hands to try and warm himself.

“You know, there are many girls that would find it flattering to be rescued from a tower by prince charming. I’m not one of them.”

He opened his eyes and looked over to where he heard her voice. She was staring at him coldly and sitting cross legged on a rock in the frozen river nearby. Now, it all came flooding back. Breaking into Pouhai, breaking her out, then consequently getting shot by one of the archers. 

_Azula always used to say how bad with swords I was; at least I proved her wrong._

He knew that this was probably leading toward a fight, so he didn’t make a move and kept his eyes on her, waiting for her to make a move. After a few seconds, she sighed and relaxed her posture.

“Thank you for getting me out of there,” she said, this time with a softer tone than before. “I might have had to wait until the next full moon before I could escape on my own.”

He looked away, not sure what to say to her. What he had just done was highly illegal. Letting Zhao hand her over to his father would have been the best for his nation; he had superior power for capturing her and keeping her contained. But he would have lost everything: his home, his throne, and his hope for a future. If Zhao had captured him, he probably would have been killed. On the other hand, if he hadn’t broken her out, then he would never be able to return home. He hoped that he had made the correct decision.

“Before the war,” she continued “I spent two years living in the Fire Nation. Ember Island was my home. Some of my best friends there were firebenders, and I really miss them.”

The Prince looked at her again, a bit confused. He wasn’t really sure what she was trying to get at, but now that she had relaxed the atmosphere felt much more tranquil. The chill in the air felt less harsh, the snow and the frozen river reflected the moonlight. There was still some running water from the river near him, trickling softly in the background of the otherwise silent night. Her blue eyes looked at him once again, and even they seemed less cold.

“Do you think, that maybe if the war never happened, we could have been friends?”

He didn’t bother answering the question. This had gone too far to him, he didn’t want to hear her talk anymore. She was the enemy, the one he needed to restore his honor; he didn’t want the thought of them becoming friends in his head. He thrust his fist forward to shoot fire at her, but she was ready. She bended the water in the stream upward to block the fire, then stood and hopped onto the water. She used the water it to propel herself down the stream, and within a few seconds she was gone. He was alone in the moonlight.

* * *

Gin was getting worried. It was nighttime now, and neither her or Bato had seen Kai. She hoped she hadn’t upset her last night.

“She does this sometimes,” he explained. “Sometimes she just needs to be alone. She’ll be back soon.”

“Don’t you think we should look for her? We’re being tracked by the Fire Nation, what if they got her?”

“If they did, then we would have heard it last night. She can handle herself, don’t worry about her. We’ll just stay here until she comes back.”

That still didn’t make her feel any better. Finally, they heard some footsteps approaching from the trees, and in to the camp emerged the Avatar.

“Where have you been? You’ve been gone all day.”

“I just needed to clear my head, no big deal.” She said, shaking off the questions and greeting her friends with a smile. “We should probably get moving though, we’ve been here long enough, they might be getting close.”

“Have you eaten?” Bato asked her.

“No, actually, I’m starving.”

“Before we do the responsible thing and run off, lets at least get you some dinner.” Gin said.


	7. The Blind Bandit

“Prince Zuko, you’re up early.”

The Prince had actually been up all night, walking back home. Unfortunately, the walk hadn’t helped give him clarity; it only complicated everything more.

“Yes,” he lied as he boarded the ship. “It was a nice morning. I figured I’d get some air.”

Before he left the ship the previous night, he had hidden a small pack to keep his clothes in. When he returned, he changed out of his mask and black clothes and stowed them back in the pack.

“What were you doing with those?” his uncle asked, motioning to the swords he was carrying on his back.

“Practicing.” Zuko said and continued to walk back up to his room. He wasn’t going to tell anyone what he had done. It had already slipped somehow that he had found the Avatar, and that information had made its way to Zhao; he didn't want it to happen again. What he had done was illegal and dishonorable, but at least the Avatar was his to hunt again.

He made it back to his bed without any further questions. He hung his broadswords back on the wall, set his bag down, concealed the mask underneath his bed, and laid down in bed. He was exhausted from last night, but it was still early enough in the morning for a quick nap before he needed to start tracking down the Avatar once again.

 _The Avatar…_ He reminisced about their encounters again while he closed his eyes. _She saved my life last night._ He remembered when she was right on top of him, literally, when she blocked the arrows from killing the two of them. Her brown curls fell around her nervous face, her lips slightly parted to catch her breath, her beautiful blue eyes looking down at him. He remembered when they finally made it outside the prison, when he grabbed her waist and pulled her close to him so he wouldn’t get shot again. The way she squirmed in his arm when he had his sword to her throat…

 _Thoughts like those are signs of weakness._ He reminded himself. _She is an enemy once again, nothing more._ He tried to erase the thought of her from his mind, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Well, that’s the third town in five days with no earthbenders.” Kai looked down at their map and mentally crossed out another town.

“Most of the villages around here are Fire Nation colonies now, any good earthbenders were probably taken away years ago.”

“Look I know its been tough going, but we can’t give up yet.” Bato said, trying to be hopful. “The further east we go, the more likely we are to run into somebody.”

“We’ve been looking for a teacher since we broke out of the iceberg. It’s been two months now, and I’m nowhere near mastering earthbending. No offense, Gin, you’ve been a great teacher.”

“No, I’m with you. I never had a teacher, so what I know is pretty limited.”

“Look at how well you picked up waterbending.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t learn it at all as a kid, and within two years you were not only kicking my ass but all the other firebenders on the island. Don’t be so hard on yourself; if anyone is good enough to do this, it’s you.”

The next morning, the trio headed into the next town. After asking around for hours, it was clear they weren’t getting anywhere. This stop was a trading village on the southern coast. It was pretty clear after they arrived that most of the activity there was less than legal and most of the earthbenders they found were for hire mercenaries, not teachers. 

“We’ve been at this all morning,” Gin started to complain. “Lets just take a break for a few minutes?”

“Ok, fine,” She said. “But if we don’t find anyone soon, we need to keep moving.”

The three sat down on the pilings on the harbor. There was a busy road in front of them, and the pier were connected to the road. To their left, there were a group of men playing dice and betting. There was a shout as one of the unlucky patrons lost a silver piece and the dealer smiled and said he’d have better luck next time. The patron looked like he wanted to fight over it, but there was nothing he could do, so he got up and left. The dealer shouted to one of the other people passing through.

“Hey, girl! Yes, you! Want to try your luck?”

The girl from the crowd who was about Gin’s age with plain earth kingdom clothes, a large bun in her hair, and a walking cane, turned her head to look at the dealer.

“Who me? But I’m just a blind little girl. How can I play when I can’t see?”

“You don’t have to see to be lucky, now do you? Come here, sit down, and throw the dice.”

 _Swindling a blind girl? That’s low._ She wanted to say something and intervene, but it wasn’t her place. She watched as the young girl approached the dealer, using a walking stick to guide herself and feel where he was sitting. She sat down in front of him and felt the dice in her hands. She noticed that she wasn’t even wearing shoes; the poor girl must be another Earth Kingdom refugee passing through.

“Ok, now you’re going to call a number, and if the dice add up to that number than you win! I’ll match whatever you bet. If you lose, I take your bet; if you win, you get the pot.”

“Sure mister, that sounds fun! I pick seven, that’s my favorite number.” The blind girl innocently smiled to him handed the dealer two silver pieces. 

_The dice are rigged; it’s the oldest trick in the book._ She had played street games before, she knew how they always went down. The odds are always stacked against the player, either with rigged dice or cheating. But when the blind girl rolled the pair of dice, she got a three and a four.

“Did I win?” the blind girl asked. The dealer’s mouth dropped, and so did Kai’s. He reluctantly handed the girl four silver pieces and congratulated her luck.

_How did she do that?_

“Double your wager?” The dealer asked, regaining his smug composure. “You seem like you’re very lucky today.”

“I sure am.” The girl said with a smile. She pulled a sack of cash out of her pocket and bet it all. Once again, the rigged dice rolled a seven, and the girl picked up her walking stick and walked away with her pockets full.

“I’ll be right back.” She turned to her friends and excused herself, deciding to follow the girl from a distance. She had never seen anything like it before; the girl was clearly blind and used her cane to walk around, pretending to be naïve and helpless, only to swindle each gambler on the pier. Every time the dice rolled in her favor, she found the coin under the moving cups, she guessed the correct number, and won. The girl eventually turned a corner into an alleyway, and she stopped at the corner next to it.

“You can come out now, I know you’ve been following me all morning.”

She had no idea how this blind girl knew this, but she stepped into the alley where she was.

“I’m not going to rob you,” She held her hands up to show that she meant no harm. She didn’t think this girl could actually see her, but if she figured out that she was being followed then Kai wanted to play it cool. This girl was clearly a mastermind. “I just thought it was fun to watch.”

“It would be a lot more fun if you’d get off my back.”

“I will, I’m sorry. But I have to know, how were you doing that?”

“That’s none of your business, nosy. Now back off before—”

Before she could get her threat out, someone stepped into the opposite end of the alleyway. Now the blind girl was trapped, both exits of the alleyway had someone guarding them. Kai looked over at the man at the other end of the alleyway; it was the gambler whose trick dice the blind girl managed to beat.

“You’re the one that robbed me. You’re gonna pay for that.”

He unsheathed the sword on his back and charged toward her. To her astonishment, the girl widened her stance, and waited until the thug was closer. She kicked the earth with her heel, sending a movement of rock headed straight for the man’s foot. She watched in slow motion as the rock slide hit his foot as soon as it touched the ground, making it slide forward. He was forced into a split, making him drop his sword and yell in pain.

Without hesitation, the girl shoved her way past Kai and ran back into the busy harbor. The girl made her way through the crowds, and she tried her best to follow. She passed her friends, still sitting by the pier, and waved her hand toward them so that they knew to follow her. The three of them together made their way through the crowd, trying not to lose her, but they weren’t the only ones. A trio of pirates descended from their ship onto the pier, weapons drawn, in front of the girl to try and cut her off. As soon as they got off the gang plank and onto the dirt road that the girl was running on, she stopped. Once again, she widened her stance, and this time she lifted up her left hand next to her head and made a quick jabbing motion with her hand in front of her face. Three columns of earth rose and hit the pirates in the chest, launching them into the water next to the road. The trio continued to follow the blind girl, but after a while they lost sight of her in the crowded city. Eventually, they regrouped and left the city.

“Kai, who was that?” Gin asked.

“That was her, that was the Blind Bandit.”

“Are you sure?”

“I watched her swindled every single scammer in the port. I followed her into an alleyway so I could talk to her, and even though she couldn’t see me, she knew I was following her. And you should have seen her earthbend! Did you see her on the pier?”

“No, I barely saw her at all.”

“She was incredible. I have to talk to her.”

"Shouldn't we go back into town then, and see if she's still there?" Bato asked.

They had made their way back to where they had camped the previous night. It was well afternoon now and time to make camp, but she had other ideas. She procured a sack of cash from her pocket and showed her friends.

“She bumped into me, so I snagged this off of her. She was loaded, so I figured she’d barely notice if it was gone. I want to see if Koda can track her down; she probably didn’t go very far.”

She gave it to Koda to sniff, and before long she caught the scent, putting her nose to the ground. The trio hopped onto the dog’s saddle and were led back into town. 

“Why do you want to meet her so bad? From what you said she’s a good earthbender and we’re desperate at this point, but why a blind girl?” Bato asked, sitting behind her.

“I don’t know, I just feel like I’m supposed to meet her. I don’t think running into her today was a coincidence.”

Koda led them down through the pier again and made a left turn into an alleyway; right where she had lost sight of the girl earlier. They went a bit further down the street, then stopped at the entrance to a bar. Koda began sniffing the door, so she figured that was their place to stop and dismounted. Before she made her way inside, she noticed a bulletin board to the right of the entrance to the shady bar.

“Hey look, we’re wanted.” She said with a smile to her friends, picking up her own wanted poster off the bulletin board. She tore it down, hoping no one inside the bar would recognize her. Her friends did the same for theirs. 

“Wow, I can’t believe this.” Bato seemed shocked and disappointed looking down at the poster of himself.

“I know, right? I can’t believe I’m wanted in my own country, and I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“No, it’s not that, look at how they drew my hair!” He held up the poster to his friends to show it to them, but Kai was distracted. She had rifled through the other posters and pulled out another one that she recognized. She lifted it off the wall, wanting to get a closer look. She had been trying to forget about their night together, her and the Blue Spirit, but it felt like she had been unable to escape it. She still hadn’t told her friends that she was captured and put in prison; the only thing she mentioned about that day was going to the Spirit World. She made up some lie that time moved differently there, and that’s why she had been gone all day and night.

She hated that out of everyone on this planet, he had to be the one to break her out. She hated that they had been so close, fighting side by side like old companions. But above everything else, she hated how that night ended.

_Why did I think trying to talk to him was going to help?_

“Is something wrong?” Gin asked her.

“No,” she responded quickly, breaking out of her concentration and letting go of the poster. “Bato, watch Koda. Gin, come in with me. We shouldn't be too long.”

She could tell her friend was a little nervous going into a shady bar for the first time, so she made sure that she was close by as they made their way in together.

“Do you see her anywhere?”

“No, but she knows we’re here. She’ll approach us.”

The two made their way through the crowd and stood at the bar. She called the bartender over and ordered two drinks, one for her and her friend. Before they were even made, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“I thought I told you to stop following me around.” She turned around, and sure enough the Blind Bandit had found them.

“You did, but I’m not very good at doing what people tell me.” Kai pulled the sack of cash from her pocket and held it in front of the girl’s face. “I think you dropped this back there.”

The bandit angrily reached for it back, but she held it up higher, out of her reach.

“You’ll get this back if you can teach me what you did back there.”

“Can’t you find some other earthbender to bother? I’m busy.”

“I can, but you’re the best one in town. And any earthbender who can rob everybody in town has my respect, and attention. My friend and I are looking for a teacher.”

“You would have my respect if you let me have my money and got out of town. I’m not a teacher.”

“No, but I heard you’ve had some run-ins with the Fire Nation. They also have me on their most wanted list. It seems like we have a common enemy.”

“Buy me a drink and I’ll think about it. Let’s talk.” The blind girl leaned against the counter, and she called over the bartender.

“So, what did you two do to piss off the Fire Nation?”

“They took over our village, we fought back.”

“That’s a lie.”

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. The bartender finally brought their drinks over and she took her shot before answering her again.

“We just escaped from prison.”

“That’s another lie. If you’re got going to tell me what you’re doing here then you’re wasting my time.”

“Ok, fine.” She begrudgingly accepted before the girl could get up and leave. “I’m the Avatar. I need to learn earthbending so I can end this war.”

This time, the blind girl raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“The truth sounds like a lie. I thought the Avatar died years ago.”

“I didn’t die, I just stayed hidden for a while. I haven’t been back for long, and I’ve tried to stay quiet, but the Fire Nation has nearly gotten us a few times. I’ve learned some basics from my friend here, but I need to master it before the end of summer.”

“So, what’s in it for me?”

“You like being known as the Blind Bandit?”

“Yea, its been fun. I like being famous.”

“If I don’t die and end this war, you’ll be known as the person that taught me earthbending. And when I fight the Fire Lord, I can’t look sloppy. You’d want me to look professional, right?”

“Hm, not a bad point. The Avatar should be taught by the best.” She mulled it over and took a sip of her drink. “Ok, I’ll do it. I can’t run with you until the end of the summer, but I can give you a few weeks. If you’re the Avatar, that’s all you’ll need anyway.”

“Deal.”

“So, Blind Bandit,” Gin finally spoke up, “What’s your real name?”

“Toph, pleased to make your acquaintance.”


	8. The Great Divide

Zhao sat in his office in the stronghold where just a few nights ago he had been sitting happily, preparing his speech to his men. Instead of writing to the Fire Lord about his great victory in conquering the Avatar, now he was looking over vague reports to try and determine her whereabouts. Before it had been about bringing him glory and honor, but now his mission was personnel. He hated that girl, he hated how arrogant she was, and he hated that his men had let her slip away. But if it wasn’t for that masked man…

The guards had started calling him the Blue Spirit. The first thing he had done was interview all the men at the stronghold, every soldier that traveled in and out that day, and even those bringing in supplies. Most of them had an alibi and a background that proved they were loyal to the Fire Nation. It had gotten him nowhere yet; most of the men had been fighting the night of the attack. He put a bounty on his head, a steep one, hoping that someone would be able to track him down and capture him. He had done the same for the Avatar and her friends, since he still had no leads to her location. He figured the Blue Spirit must have been one of the Avatar’s friends, but the two she was reported travelling with last were another waterbender and an earthbender, and neither of them fit the description. He knew that putting out wanted posters for them was a big gamble: now the whole world knew that the Avatar was alive, and everyone would be hunting her. Even still, she was so difficult to track down; it was like she had been living under a rock since she escaped from his prison. The only one who had any luck tracking her was Zuko. Come to think of it, he hadn’t heard from the banished Prince in a while. Maybe it was time to pay him a visit and check on his progress.

* * *

“The Great Divide. The perfect place to smash rocks where no one will bother you.”

Toph had led the trio up north to the massive canyon, far from the ports and Fire Nation colonies. It sure lived up to its name; Kai couldn’t see the other side from the edge of the cliff. The canyon itself was apparently hostile and covered in canyon crawlers, so they set up camp on the cliff rather than at the base. Although their formal training hadn’t began yet, she had already learned a lot from her new master. On their journey northward, Toph had explained the nature of her situation.

“I was born blind, but I can see with earthbending. I feel the vibrations in the earth that people make, and I can see where they are.” She went on to elaborate further that she had gotten so good at it that she could tell individual footsteps, heartbeats, and even tell if someone was lying. She had been using it to rig the dice games that Kai had seen her do to make money.

“Earthbending is all about waiting.” She told them that night as they were setting up camp. “Sure, throwing rocks around is fun, but you want to see what your opponent is going to do, predict the path, and then strike.”

She was still new to earthbending and was so eager to learn. Toph wasn’t just good, she really was a master in her own right. Her blindness made her see earthbending in a whole new light, and it made her a better warrior because of it. She couldn’t wait to learn from her.

“Tomorrow morning, you’re gonna to earthbend down the cliff, then back up. You’re going to do that as many times as I tell you to until you can do it in a timely manner. You two pebbles think you can handle that?”

“Yes, sifu Toph” the two girls responded.

“Good. Now get some rest, I want you both up bright and early tomorrow.” The earthbender created a tent for herself by bending two pieces of earth from the ground at an angle and left them alone for the night.

* * *

“We haven’t been able to pick up the Avatar’s trail since she was last spotted in this port town about a week ago.” The commander pointed it on the map to the Prince, looking over his shoulder. “But, if we continue our path along the coast—”

He stopped and turned his attention away from the map and to the port side of the ship. From the bridge, the two could see a massive Fire Navy ship pulling right up next to theirs, even in the misty winter afternoon along the coast. It came in very close, nearly hitting them along the side.

“What do they want?” He asked rhetorically, already annoyed that the meeting was interrupted.

“Perhaps a sporting game of Pai Sho.” His uncle said, rubbing his hands together after moving one of the tiles in a game against one of the engineers.

The ship tied up next to theirs, and the Prince welcomed the Fire Navy soldiers onto the bridge. They unveiled a wanted poster Zhao must have made of the Avatar and explained their mission.

“The hunt for the Avatar has been given prime importance. All information regarding the Avatar must be reported directly to Admiral Zhao.”

“Zhao has been promoted?” his uncle asked, not even looking up from his game. “Well, good for him!”

“We also have another matter of business," the soldier said, pulling out a second poster, this one looking all too familiar. "This bandit, the Blue Spirit, allowed the Avatar to escape from our stronghold. Any sightings of him, or the Avatar, must be relayed to Zhao."

“I have nothing to report to Zhao, now get off my ship and let us pass.”

“Admiral Zhao is not allowing ships in or out of this area." the soldier insisted.

“Off my ship!” he commanded to the soldiers, pointing toward the door on the bridge.

After they left and they were forced to turn the ship around, he took off his armor and went out on deck to blow off steam. He let himself be unrestrained, channeling his anger and frustration into massive fire blasts that lit up the bow of the ship on the foggy afternoon.

“Is something wrong?” Iroh said from behind him. “Its been nearly an hour, and you haven’t given the men and order.”

“I don’t care what they do.” He said still facing the sea.

“Don’t give up hope yet. We can still find the Avatar before Zhao.”

“How, uncle?” he asked, finally turning around to face him. “With Zhao’s resources, it’s only a matter of time before he brings the Avatar home to my father.” He turned away once again, looking out over the foggy sea. “My honor, my throne, my country. I’m about to lose them all.”

* * *

“I’m sure you two are familiar with the game stop the rock?”

After an afternoon of climbing up and down the cliffside, the two girls were finally onto their next task.

“Yea, we’ve done it before.” Gin answered their master.

“Good! We’re going to play it again, but this time with an added challenge. Gin, you’re first.”

She stepped forward and got into position. Toph had positioned a boulder at the top of a slope and she directed her student where to stand. Her master pulled the scarf from around her waist and wrapped it around her eyes.

“Now, we’re doing it blindfolded. You’re going to have to feel the vibrations within the earth as the boulder approaches. Do you think you have what it takes?”

“I do.” She said to her master. She heard her master walk away and tried to do what she had talked about. She felt the earth rumble as Toph bended herself up the cliff to where she knew the rock was positioned. Her master gave her no warning and pushed the boulder down toward her. She could hear it moving downward and felt the earth shaking beneath her feet. She waited until she thought it was close enough, then held out her arms in front of her, palms facing the boulder, to stop it. To her surprise, she timed it perfectly: her hands perfectly connected with the rock, and she dug her heels into the earth beneath her feet, stopping it perfectly.

“Nice, Gin!” she heard Kai shout at her. She took off the blindfold from around her eyes and looked at the gigantic rock in front of her face. Kai came over to her and touched her shoulder, and she smiled at her friend.

“Now it’s my turn,” the waterbender said, taking the blindfold from her hand. Gin bended the boulder back up to Toph on the cliff, and she backed off and watched her friend get into position. Once again, their master sent the boulder rolling down the cliff toward her with no warning. She watched as her friend shook her hands and loosened up while waiting for the boulder to get close enough. When it was just a few feet away from hitting her, her friend reached out her hands and stopped it, sliding backward a few inches before the boulder came to a halt.

"Not bad." Toph said, descending from the cliff. "Not bad at all. But next time, don't let it move you even a inch." She said, looking at Kai's form and correcting it.

* * *

The two earthbenders were wrapping up their third week of training. They were far from masters yet, but they had made considerable progress. Every day for the past three weeks they had been training from dawn until dusk. Toph not only toughened them up and forced them to think like an earthbender, but she showed them how to see like she did. Like every evening, they ended by bowing to their master before returning to camp to eat dinner and relax.

“You two have made a lot of progress in three weeks,” Their master told them. “You still have a lot more to learn, but honestly I don’t think you need me for much longer. There is one more technique I want to teach you; it’s one I invented myself. If you want to be a solid, versatile earthbender, it will be good for you to know.”

“Yes, sifu Toph.” The two girls responded.

“Gin, I’m especially impressed with you. When I go, Kai will have to start calling you Sifu Gin.”

The two girls smiled and looked at each other. They bended back up the cliffside for the evening, where they had made camp for the past three weeks. Tomorrow was their last day of training, and afterward they had planned to celebrate together in a nearby town before they parted ways. The next morning, the two girls woke up bright and early for their final lesson. They made their way down the canyon, and to their surprise Toph seemed unprepared. There were no boulders lying around, no maze for them to go through. All that was there were two coins on a pedestal of earth.

“This is your final lesson,” Toph said to her students. “I want you to learn how to bend the metal in these coins.”

“I’m a little confused,” Kai said. “I didn’t think earthbenders could bend metal.”

“Normally, no. I embarrassingly got captured once and I was put in a metal prison with no exit. I learned how to bend metal, and I broke out. The key is to find the little pieces of earth inside the metal that you can bend. Metal is just a more refined form of earth; reach out with your earthbending and find the earth inside it.”

Toph took her stance and bended the coin upward into the air.

“It takes practice. I’ll leave you to it.”

The two were at it for hours with no progress. The sun rose in the sky and had began to fall again on the cold winter day in the canyon, and neither of the girls had been able to move it. Gin tried not to get discouraged, but her friend felt differently.

“Maybe I’m just not good enough at earthbending to get it. If we don’t get it by the end of the day, lets just practice it on the road as we go.”

“It’s that kind of attitude that’s not going to make you be able to do it.” She explained to her friend. “You have to have full confidence that it’s going to work.”

“You’re right.” Kai said. “But I feel like this is something that’s going to take a lot of time, which we don’t have."

Gin decided to meditate with the coin in her hand, rubbing it between her fingers and getting a physical feeling for it. Toph had taught them to see with their own earthbending, and she knew that was the key to making the coin move. She placed the coin on the ground in front of her and tried to feel it with her earthbending. It was difficult with such a small and light object; she decided closing her eyes might help. She reached out with her earthbending and could tell its location without her eyes. She focused in the small particles of earth in the small coin. Without her sight, it made it easier to see and feel. She stood up, still with her eyes closed, and used her bending to feel for the coin again. She decided to go for it; she punched forward, and the coin slid across the ground, moving a few feet backward. She opened her eyes and laughed, it worked! When her friend realized what she did she ran over and hugged her.

“You did it, Gin, you’re a metalbender!” The waterbending hugged her so hard, she nearly lifted her off the ground. 

That evening, they gave Toph their regards and, of course, they money they promised her.

“Congratulations on being the second metalbender in history,” Her teacher said with an approving smile. “Now make sure the waterbender learns it too. You were both great students; I hope our paths cross again someday after we part.”

“Why, so you can yell at us again?” Kai asked with a smile, crossing her arms.

“Duh, why else?” Toph said, enthusiastically, and punched the Avatar in the arm.

Kai rubbed her arm where she was punched, and the two girls bowed to their master. They packed up camp and headed into the nearby town to celebrate before they said their final goodbyes.


	9. The Admiral and the Prince

It was nearly dusk before the four of them reached the village they were visiting. It was pretty bare boned, with only a few blocks of stone houses surrounded by farmland. The little village was quiet that night as they went into town, stopping at the in to rent rooms. It had been ages since any of them had slept in a real bed, and Toph was buying. The inn had a bar on the first story, so after they put their things down in their rooms, they all went down for a drink and some dinner. The inn wasn’t very busy, only occupied by a few other travelers just passing through. Thankfully, the village was remote enough where their wanted posters weren’t plastered outside on the wall. Just to be safe, they swore off bending for the night and decided to just relax.

The food was meager, but it was a hot meal and it was cheap. Toph wanted to treat everybody and since she just got paid, she was feeling generous. She bought them a round of beer as well, and quickly tried to prove she could out drink her new friends. Gin wasn’t much of a drinker, but the two waterbenders took up her challenge. Before long, everyone was drunk and having a good time. It was their first night off in so long, and they were all dying to let loose. Kai was having a blast; this is exactly what she had been missing. Mastering earthbending had been a lot of fun in its own way, but it had been so long since she just let everything go. She missed this life; having fun, not worrying about the war. She knew it wouldn’t last, but at least they all had tonight to be together. She was going to miss her earthbending master, in more ways than one: not only was she a fantastic teacher and now a lifelong friend, but she could outdrink anybody else in the bar. They were now on their seventh round of the night, and she smiled and looked over at her newfound friend. Toph looked like it was finally starting to hit her; she had stopped smiling, her hand resting on the table, and her brow furrowed.

“Hey, you’re not gonna vomit, are you?” She asked, stifling her laughter for a minute to try and be sincere to make sure her friend was ok.

“Ooohhhhhhh, didya finally hit your limit?” Gin said, covering her mouth and snickering as she looked over at Toph.

“Do you two feel that?” Toph asked the two, breaking her casual demeanor and becoming much more serious.

“Feel what?” She asked.

“It feels like there’s an army passing by.”

That quickly sobered her up. She looked around the room, making sure that there wasn’t anyone near that looked like Fire Nation. “Are they headed toward us?”

“It’s hard to tell, they’re still far away.” 

“Do you think we should make a break for it?” Bato asked, who seemed to come back to reality as well.

“No. I think we should lay low and wait. We’re all too messed up to fight or run anyway.”

“Yea, you’re probably right.” He admitted. “Maybe we should go back up to the room and try and sleep this off, just in case.”

“Yea, maybe we should.” She said, setting down her unfinished drink on the table. She got up and took the very drunk Gin back to her room, wrapping her arm around her shoulder to make sure she got there without stumbling and hurting herself. When everyone else had made it back to their room for the night, she finally flopped down onto her simple straw mattress. The blanket was thin, but she still felt warm from her night of drinking. She closed her eyes, enjoying the peacefulness of being drunk and laying in her bed, alone from the world and its problems, falling asleep in bliss.

Waking up the next morning was not nearly as peaceful or enjoyable. The sunlight seeping through the thin curtains in the window was hitting her directly in the eye, forcing her to move her face to the side to try and avoid it. Her mouth tasted foul and her throat was dry, but she didn’t feel like getting up and getting water for herself just yet. She just wanted a few minutes, just to lay in bed, to be hungover in peace. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what she got; someone burst through her door, making her flinch and prop herself up on her arms.

“Oh good, you’re up.” It was Bato, who very frantically came into the room and squatted beneath the window next to her mattress.

“Good morning.” She said, sitting up cross legged, putting her back against the wall.

“We have a situation.”

“Yea?”

“Yea, there’s an army of Fire Nation soldiers coming through town right now.”

That got her attention. She blinked at him, rubbing her tired eyes to try and wake herself up. She reached over the side of the bed for her supplies, going for her boots and coat to get herself ready. When they weren't in her bag she had a slight panic, until she looked at herself and realized she slept in them.

“So, what’s the plan?” She asked, braiding her tangled hair instead of trying to brush it out. 

“We’re trying to lay low and hoping they’ll leave. They’re marching around town on both sides, and I feel like they’re trying to trap us in here and I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either. Where’s everyone else?”

“Still in their rooms, you were the last person up. Gin never went to sleep; she was up all night getting sick.”

“Poor girl, we shouldn’t have pushed her.”

“Yea, I know.”

She finished her braid, tying the end and adjusting it so it was behind her head instead of on her shoulder. Bato tilted his head upward to peek out the window, looking down into the city to watch the soldiers.

“There’s someone riding a rhino coming into the middle of the town. He looks important.” He whispered over to her her.

“I know you’re here, Avatar. I know you’re hiding somewhere in this piece of shit town.” She slumped her shoulders when she heard that voice: it was the Admiral that had captured her a few weeks back and locked her in prison. Had found her once again, and he had her trapped like a rat. She and Bato shared a nervous look, realizing that the situation had just gotten much, much worse.

“We have you completely surrounded on every side.” He shouted out from the village square. “I’m giving you ten minutes to crawl out of whatever hole you’re hiding in. If you don’t make yourself appear, I’m torching this place and burning it to the ground to flush you out. Your time starts now.”

“You can’t go down there, he’s gonna kill you. Let’s look for a way to give him the slip.” He beckoned to the doorway by tilting his head, but she stayed where she was sitting.

“No. If we sneak out, he’s going to kill everyone here. We don’t have the strength to fight off that whole army. I’m going down there.” If Zhao couldn't kill her when she escaped from prison, he probably wouldn't now. Even still, she was taking a big risk.

“No, I’m not going to let you go alone, are you crazy?”

“He wants to get me back to the Fire Nation so he can hand me over to the Fire Lord, just like the dude with the scar. I don't think he's gonna kill me on the spot. There’s a full moon tonight, and if they put me on a ship then I’ll be fine. I don’t want anyone here to get hurt; lets give him what he wants.”

“Kai, you don’t have to do this.” Her friend was genuinely worried, his voice starting to break as he pleaded her to stay.

“I don’t really have much of a choice.” She reached out her arms toward her friend, and he leaned over and gave her a hug. After a few seconds, they broke it off and went back to sitting apart from each other. “You and the other two stay here and make sure that they actually leave this town alone. Meet me by the southern shore tomorrow, follow the army’s trail. I’ll be ok.”

With a pit in her stomach, she got up out of bed and made her way out of the room. As stoic as she could with a hangover, she walked down the creaky wooden stairs of the inn and out the front door. The harsh morning sunlight was blinding, and she squinted as she faced the Admiral on his rhino.

“There you are.” He said with a sinister smile as she continued to approach him. His guards quickly stepped in front of his rhino, drawing their spears at her to protect him. She stopped in her tracks as more footman broke out of their neat rank behind him to surround her.

“If you hurt anyone in this town, then I will destroy you and your entire army. This will be a quick and painless exchange: I’ll come quietly, and no one gets hurt. Is that a deal?”

“You’re in no position to bargain, little girl.”

“I am more powerful than the last time we met, Zhao. Don’t challenge me.” She was trying to be as stern as she could, but more than anything she just wanted to vomit and go back to bed. The sunlight was giving her a migraine, and the combination of her nerves for this confrontation and her night of drinking were twisting her stomach in knots. If he really did want to fight, it was going to go poorly.

“Fine, it’s a deal.” Thankfully for her sake, he agreed to play nice. He snapped his fingers to one of his guards, who brought forward a pair of metal handcuffs. Reluctantly, she held out her wrists, and that was the end of their business. The soldiers grabbed her elbow, guiding her behind where Zhao was positioned to a metal cage that they had chained to one of the rhinos. As she was being chained at feet and waist inside of it, Zhao approached her to taunt her once again.

“I just received this scroll from a mutual friend of ours.” He said, holding the rolled up piece of paper in his hand and waving it next to his face. “It seems that somebody must have tipped him off that we had found you, and now he wants a confrontation. Bringing you back to the Fire Lord will be my honor alone.”

“I wish you Fire Nation men cared about your hygiene as much as you did your honor. I can smell the fish you had for breakfast from in here.”

“You have no escape from this very tiny box, little girl, I would keep that in mind before you run your mouth again. Stay quiet and don’t make any problems for us, or we’ll ship you back to the Fire Nation in pieces.” He slammed the door shut, locking her into the very tiny cell. At least she finally had some time to rest.

* * *

She realized that she must have dozed off, suddenly waking back up inside her small cage. The rhino that was carrying her had stopped, but she had no idea where she was or where they had taken her. There were only a few rays of light leaking through the air vent at the top of the metal cage, but it was not enough for her to look out of. Suddenly, the metal cage was opened, forcing her to turn her head away from the sudden bright light and close her eyes.

“There she is, Prince Zuko, the Fire Lord’s prize.” She heard Zhao sneer in front of her. “Let’s get this over with. I look forward to permanently continuing your exile.”

The door to her metal cage was left open, and she slowly allowed her eyes to adjust. It was afternoon and she was still somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. Zhao and the Prince were both kneeling on opposite sides of a clearing in front of her. They were both wearing ceremonial shoulder coverings and were shirtless underneath except for cuffs around their arms, dressed for an Agni Kai. Once they were both ready to fight, they shed their shoulder garment and stood up to face one another.

“Look boys, this is very flattering,” She shouted out to them leaning toward the opening of the cage, “but would you mind letting me out of here so I can get a better view of the show?”

“Shut up!” Zhao yelled back at her as he walked into of the clearing toward the Prince.

 _Good, rile him up._ She thought. _The angrier he gets, the faster he’ll lose._ She’d seen Agni Kai before, and she knew firebenders. They were all hot headed and quick to anger; it’s the calm ones you have to worry about in a fight.

The Prince paid her comment no mind. He looked very intense, completely focused on the Admiral as he approached him in silence, shoulders back and chin up. He looked like a more formidable opponent than the hotheaded Admiral, especially without his shirt on. She knew he was broad shouldered before, it was even more apparent now that he was shirtless. His arms were large and well defined, and well accented with the metal cuffs around his biceps. Looking down further, his chest was also well sculpted with his toned pecs, his stomach was taught, showing the outline of the musculature beneath. 

_It’s a damn shame he’s trying to kill me._ She thought, biting her lip as she kept her eyes on him. The two finally stopped, keeping their respective distance from one another. The took their stances, keeping their attention only on their opponent. One of the soldiers sounded the gong, and then the battle began.

The Prince shot a fire blast and the Admiral from his fist, but he casually stepped to his right and dodged it. The Prince continued, sending volleys of fire from his hands and feet, but Zhao continued to sidestep and avoid being burned. The Admiral finally grew tired of redirecting the fire and aimed low at the Prince, kneeling with both hands clasped together on the ground. The Prince was able to redirect the blast around himself but Zhao kept up the offensive, aiming powerful blasts for his chest. Zuko redirected the fire around his body, but eventually he lost his footing and fell to the ground. Zhao gave him no time to recover and was on him in an instant, standing over the Prince and sending one final fire blast from his fist toward his face.

Just in time, the Prince hit the Admiral’s leg with a swipe from his own, making him lose his balance. It gave the Prince enough time to regain his footing as the Admiral fell. Zhao tried to get back up and steady himself but the Prince seized the opportunity, swiping his feet and shooting fire from the sides to break Zhao’s roots. He stumbled backward, and the Prince kicked high, shooting fire from his foot at Zhao’s head. As he tried to duck to avoid being burned, he fell backward. The Prince stood over him and aimed his fist at his head. The fight was over. 

Oddly, they stood in this position for a few seconds, and she wasn’t sure why. The fight should end when someone went down, right?

“Do it.” Zhao said to the Prince.

She turned away and closed her eyes not wanting to watch the slaughter. She heard the Prince shout as he shot another blast of fire down at his opponent.

“That’s it? Your father raised a coward.”

Confused, she turned back to see that the Prince hadn’t killed Zhao after all. He was still standing over him, but he only shot next to the Admiral’s face instead of killing him, the ground still smoking.

“Next time you get in my way, I won’t hold back.” The Prince began to walk away back to his side of the arena. She saw Zhao start to get up to leave, but in his anger he kicked and sent another wave of fire at the Prince. Zuko turned around just in time to deflect the fire around his body. He grabbed his opponent’s foot and threw him backward, knocking him down once again. It looked like the fight might start again as he began to approach his opponent, but an old man stepped in from the sideline and blocked him.

“No, Prince Zuko, do not taint your victory.” The old man placed his hands around the Prince, holding him back from Zhao. Realizing that the fight had truly ended, he relaxed his stance. The old man turned to Admiral on the ground next.

“So, this is how the great Admiral Zhao acts in defeat? Disgraceful. My nephew has more honor in exile than you.”

That seemed to be the end of it, at least for now. The Prince looked at his uncle, and the two walked off of the makeshift arena together. Zhao got up on his own, beaten and angry. Just to rub it in, she thought she’d pipe up once again.

“Cheer up Zhu,” She taunted with a smile, “maybe the Blue Spirit will break me out and you can have another chance!”

“Its Zhao! Admiral Zhao!”

She chuckled at his tantrum, but the Prince shot her a nasty look at the mention of the Blue Spirit. She gave him the same smile she flashed Zhao, bowing her head to as much as she could to mockingly congratulate him. It was a good show; Agni Kai are a lot more fun to watch when one is a hothead who’s a sore loser. The fight at least illuminated one thing: she finally understood the Prince's motives. She thought it was odd that the crowned Prince was doing the work of a mercenary, hunting down an impossible target that had disappeared for a hundred years.

 _The Fire Nation and their honor system._ She thought to herself once again. _Whatever he did, it must have been bad to get exiled by his own family._

* * *

The Prince gave the Admiral back what she had been transported in and instead bound her hands and feet in chains. They put her atop one of their own rhinos to be ridden back to wherever they were taking her. At least she was out of that cage; she slept through most of the journey, but being out in the fresh air with the sunlight beginning to dim made her feel a lot less hungover. She figured he would also put her on a ship like Zhao was going to. Same plan, different captor. The Prince rode on the rhino next to her, keeping a close eye on her they traveled.

She already knew that she was being taken to the shore, but it was confirmed when they got closer. She could smell the salt and the fresh sea air and hear the waves crashing faintly in the distance. She closed her eyes and relaxed, trying to reach out and feel the water just as she was trained to reach out with her earthbending. She had been away from the sea for weeks, and she desperately missed it.

“Something wrong?” The Prince had taken notice of her change in demeanor. He stared over at her from his own rhino, looking as angry as ever even after his victory.

“You’re making me ride side-saddle on a rhino and I’ve been in chains all day,” She remarked casually. “What do you think is wrong?”

“Hm.” He grunted, clenching his jaw, and the two rode the rest of the way in silence.

As they got closer to the shore, she sensed something was off. Not with the Prince or the situation she was in, but with the sea. When the shoreline was close, she noticed the waves were white capping and crashing frequently. She looked at the pier and noticed that the waves were still below the high tide line that is usually marked on the pier pilings. She smelled the sea air once again, and it unfortunately confirmed her theory.

_Uh oh._

“Hey,” she said, turning toward to the Prince, “I know you’re not going to listen to me, but we need to stay in port tonight.”

“You don’t get to make the decisions here,” he said, growing annoyed. “I’m not staying here and giving you time to escape.”

“There’s a typhoon coming, a bad one.” She sternly iterated. “The full moon is tonight as well, and it’s going to hit at high tide.”

“The sky is completely clear! There isn’t a cloud in sight.”

“You’re going to regret it. You’re sailing your crew to their deaths.”

“The safety of my crew is not your concern. I don’t care if we get a drizzle on the way back to the Fire Nation.”

“She is right, Prince Zuko.” His uncle finally stepped in to break up the squabbling. “I can feel it in my joints, and I can smell it in the air as well.”

“Have you lost your mind, Uncle? Zhao isn’t going to take this loss lying down. I’m not going to risk staying in port any longer than I have to. We sail, tonight, end of discussion.”


	10. The Storm

After the Avatar was secured in her cell and their course was charted, Zuko stood at the front of the helm and watched the sea as they began to sail back home. The sun had nearly set, making the ocean ahead look like a sea of fire guiding their path. The Avatar may have been right about the storm; there were a few clouds gathering in the distance, but he was unconcerned. This was the most hopeful he had been in so many years. Six long years he searched; he had begun to give up and lose hope that the Avatar was out there at all, but he finally had her. After two months, he finally had that cocky, loudmouth peasant girl. Not only was she his prisoner, but he won the honor of taking her back to the Fire Lord in an Agni Kai, the first one he had been in since he was scarred and banished.

 _She was a formidable opponent_ , he reminded himself. _She got the best of me more than once. But now there’s nothing standing in my way._

He was going home a war hero, in his own way. He had fought long and hard for this victory for his nation; he was ready for the rewards. He heard the familiar creak of rusty steel against steel, the door behind him leading to the bridge opening up.

“If you’re fishing for an octopus, my nephew," His uncle said, walking out on the helm behind him. "You’ll need a tightly woven net, or it will squeeze through the tiniest hole and escape.”

“The Avatar is in a steel cell with two sets of chains; she’s not getting off my ship.”

“I’m sorry. I just nag you because, well, ever since I lost my son…”

“Uncle, you don’t have to say it.”

“I think of you as my own.”

“I know, uncle. Things are going to start getting better now, for both of us.”

He gave his uncle a curt smile, and he responded by rushing over to him and giving him a big hug. He wrapped his arms around him, embracing him back. Unfortunately, the happy family moment didn’t last; one of the officers came running out on deck, nearly tripping over himself.

“What’s going on?” He demanded, noticing how frantic he was.

“It’s Zhao.” He spat out. “He's following behind us.”

* * *

It had been several hours, and Kai had made no progress in her escape. She had been tugging at the chains around her wrist, trying to get them to bend. She could feel the capillaries breaking with each tug, bruises blossoming underneath her skin. The ship was rocking hard now, and there had been the occasional collision that would have knocked her over if she wasn’t already chained to the floor. They must be sailing into the storm; she only hoped that she could still get out safely, if she could manage to get out at all. She was trying to remember what Toph had taught her, but she just couldn’t figure it out. She decided to try something new: Toph had made them use their earthbending to see their surroundings. Maybe if she closed her eyes, she could do this better.

She stood up straight and closed her eyes. She couldn’t take up a good strong stance with her legs chained, but she tried to widen her legs as much as possible. She tugged at the chains on her arms hard, bruising herself once again, and tried to focus on the earth inside them. It really hurt her wrists, but she thought she may have been able to feel something. She pulled the chain taught again, and there it was. She could almost see the earth inside the metal. She focused on that little bit of earth in the cuff on her left hand and tried to force it to bend with her right. She kept her eyes closed and pulled on the cuff as hard as she could. It snapped.

She opened her eyes, not fully believing she had done it. She smiled and fought the urge to scream of joy.

_Congratulations, Kai, you’re the first metalbending Avatar._

After she calmed herself, she bent the cuff off her left wrist, then the cuffs from her feet; she was free. She grabbed the door from both sides and bent it inward, crumpling it and breaking it from the wall. She threw it aside and ran down the hallway, keeping her right hand on the wall to balance herself with the listing ship, trying to find her way out. After taking a few turns and climbing a set of stairs into the next corridor, she ran into a familiar scarred face. He was racing down the hallway perpendicular to her, nearly running straight into her where the two passageways intersected. He realized who she was before the two collided and stopped from his frantic pace to be surprised.

“How did you get out?”

“Believe it or not,” she snapped “I’m perfectly capable of getting myself out of a cell. I don’t need you or anyone else’s help.”

“Well, aren’t you a big girl now.” He sneered as he to approach her, but she stood firmly in place. The ship groaned and shook violently again; she backed up and held onto the railing along the far wall, gripping it tightly with both hands behind herself. The Prince nearly fell, but he widened his stance in the center of the hallway to stabilize himself before he lost his balance.

“What the hell is that?” She yelled to him as she held onto the railing.

“Zhao.”

“I hate firebenders.” Once the ship had stabilized, she detached herself from the wall and continued to jog down the hallway toward the doorway at the end. “All they do is go on about duty and honor, then proceed to make the worst decision for everyone involved.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Cleaning up your mess.” She shouted back to him. She heard him stomping closer to her, so she turned around and pointed a finger at his face before he could grab her. “If this ship goes down then so do I, and I don’t like owing you one anyway.” She lowered her voice as she turned back, only standing a few inches from him now. “If we both make it through this, we’re even. Deal?”

“Fine.” He growled, leaving her alone for the time. She turned back around and lifted the hatch on the steel door. It was immediately thrown open with a massive gust of wind, bringing in biting rain with it. She quickly let go of the door, unable to close it behind her, and rushed out into the black night to survey the damage. The Prince followed behind her, grabbing for the ladder that led up to the helm.

The swells were massive, probably more than forty feet high, with strong winds to match. The ship was oriented so that it was cutting through the waves from the front instead of the side. She anchored herself to the bow by freezing her feet to the soaked deck and prepared for the onslaught of the typhoon. There was only a small light coming from the bridge that she could use to see the waves coming toward her, and she tried her best to redirect the swell around the bow so they could cut through easier. The waves were massive, and it took all of her concentration in her exhausted state to push through and keep the bow from going underwater. She had redirected the first two swells around the bow, but the next one coming up was even more massive than before. The black wall loomed over the ship’s deck and came crashing downward. She tried her best to split the wave down the middle and bend the water around the bow, but the water was too strong. She managed to bend some of it away, but the center came crashing downward, pummeling her onto the deck and throwing her backward against the door that she came out from. It slammed her left shoulder blade against the handle and her head felt fuzzy after it hit the solid metal door. The water began to slough off the bow; after it was gone, she sat still for a few seconds and coughed the seawater out of her mouth.

She slowly got back up, leaning against the metal frame and putting her hands on her knees to steady herself on the violently rocking ship. She regained her posture, removed the strands of hair that had fallen out of her braid from around her face, then took a few steps forward and froze her feet to the deck one again to prepare for the next onslaught. The Prince used the pause to make a run for the doorway; he had one of the crew member's arm wrapped around his shoulder so he could carry them to safely.

“You’re going to drown!” He shouted to her before opening the door. “Get below deck!”

“I can handle it!” She shouted back, preparing for the next wave to come. He stood another second longer, watching it loom over the ship. “Go!” she shouted back. He heeded her advice, opening the door and getting the crewman inside. The next swell wasn’t as large, but it had taken her too much time to get up from the last one. She halfheartedly tried to redirect it, but it hit the deck full force. She was knocked over once again, this time with her back on the deck as the wave rolled over the ship. Once again she was coughing up seawater, rolling on her side to try and get it all out of her lungs. Supporting her weight on her injured shoulder sent a wave of pain down her arm and back. Nearly exhausted, she laid back down on the deck and watched the next incoming wave. Time seemed to slow as the bow lifted upward, the ship heading straight for the black swell. In her dazed state her vision began to blur, and she felt herself slip out of consciousness. 

Her last memory was of her and Bato, travelling on a small Water Tribe ship together. They had just left the Fire Nation, emotionally distraught after she was told of her identity and told that she had disgraced her people. The two were frantically trying to sail through the storm, but their sail had torn apart and the waves were too large to cut through in their tiny ship. The wave broke over the ship and they went under, succumbing to the turbulent autumn sea somewhere near the Earth Kingdom. At least the two had made it that far on their own, and at least she had no regrets. It had been a good life, and she never regretted leaving the Water Tribe behind. She looked through the dark ocean at her friend, unconscious, and sweet Koda who was trying her hardest to tread through the water and reach the surface. Her eyes began to glow just before she lost consciousness, enveloping her little family in a protective sphere of ice to ride out the storm

* * *

Zuko had finally made it back up to the bridge. The helmsman was safely below deck, getting warm and dry. He didn’t even bother changing, wearing his soaked armor and only wringing out his hair as he made his way to the bridge to ask for a status report. The engineer told him that the damage wasn’t severe, and thankfully Zhao had stopped firing on them as his own ship struggled to make their way through the storm. As he arrived, he could feel the ship beneath him beginning to tilt upward. Holding onto the wall for dear life, the crew were helpless as they watched the ship ride the tumultuous black sea. Surely, this wave would swallow them whole. He looked down on the deck and saw the Avatar, laying on deck, defeated from her noble attempt to stop the inevitable. It looked like he wasn’t going to make it home, even after his victory.

Suddenly, there was light in the dark night. It was the Avatar, literally glowing as she stood up to face the darkness from swallowing them. He watched in disbelief as she faced it head on and split the wave that was about to swallow them in half, directing the massive amount of water around both sides of the ship. None of the water even touched the bow. She continued to guide the ship, keeping it level as it cut through the storm.

Zhao had left them alone for too long. He watched from the bridge as another flaming boulder light up the sky, headed straight for the deck. The Avatar turned her attention away from the waves and created a tornado around herself. She rode it upward toward the blast and split the flaming boulder in half, blasting the two pieces away and into the ocean with a blasts of air. She landed on the helm, directly in front of the bridge. She ignored his crew for the moment, focusing on Zhao's ship behind them. She amassed large walls of water on either side of the ship, then directed them behind the ship to take him out. He couldn’t see behind the ship on the bridge, but she must have hit her target. She turned her back to the bridge and faced the oncoming waves, directing them around the ship and guiding them to safety. It was incredible to witness; she was fighting a typhoon by herself and winning.

“She is a powerful bender.”

He was so transfixed on the Avatar that he almost didn’t hear his uncle's incredulous comment.

“Yea, she is.”

She kept this up for another few minutes, guiding the ship out of the worst of the storm and into safer waters. Zhao hadn’t shot at them again after she attacked him; he must have either sunk or pushed off course. He decided to go out on deck to try and bring her back inside once it was safe. He removed himself from the wall he was holding on to and walked over to the door that led to the helm. His uncle tried to stop him, holding out his arm to block his path and shaking his head, but he went out anyway. As he opened the door, she turned around to face him. He had no intention of challenging her right now; she looked terrifying. She was completely tense, barring her clenched teeth as she stared him down. Her tight braid had fallen out completely in the fight, and her wet hair was slicked to her face. Her eyes were still glowing brightly as before, lighting up the dark night around them as the rain continued to pelt them both. Before he could say anything, she relaxed her posture. She loosened her shoulders and fists, softening her tense face but keeping her mouth open. She closed her eyes and the night went dark; she fell to her knees and tilted her head forward, collapsing face first onto the cold deck unconscious.

* * *

Kai regained consciousness in an actual bed instead of her sleeping bag, with pillows and blankets. Her head was pounding, her throat was chalky and dry, and her whole body felt sore. Trying to wake herself up, she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. She thought she heard someone else in the room, stirring as she moved in the bed.

_Did I go home with someone last night?_

She turned her head toward the opposite side of the room and opened her eyes. No, that thought was very wrong. The Prince was sitting across from the bed, with his back turned to her. He was meditating, facing a small altar on the opposite wall.

_Damnit._

She couldn’t remember how she ended up in this room; all she remembered was breaking out of the cell earlier that night and trying to fight off the storm. She was going to escape; how did this happen? She slowly sat up, putting her feet on the floor and propping herself up with her hands on the edge of the bed. He must have taken the cue that she was awake, standing up and turning around to face her. She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, but she didn’t remember hurting it. Her clothes and hair were still wet from fighting the storm, so she bended the water out using her uninjured arm to dry herself and to take a look at her shoulder. The Prince widened his eyes and tensed up as he watched her bend.

“Calm down.” Her voice sounded like she’d swallowed knives as she spoke to him. She tried to clear her throat as she bended the water over her hurt shoulder. Thankfully it wasn’t dislocated, only bruised. 

“So, you are a healer.” He said flatly, breaking the silence.

“Yup. You know…if you stop trying to fight me all the time…I could take a crack at your face.”

She removed the water from her shoulder and shrugged it, much better. She let the water fall to the floor.

“It’s a scar,” He said, turning his head away to hide it from her view. “It can’t be healed.”

“The water at the North Pole has special healing properties. I’ve seen it heal worse.”

He said nothing. Not wanting to make the situation even more awkward, she shrugged and looked around the room. Behind where the Prince was standing was a small window, and Kai could see that it was still dark outside; at least she hand't slept the whole night. On the wall to her left was a table, and above that was a pair of decorative twin swords that looked oddly familiar.

“You put me in your room?”

“It wasn’t my decision.” He growled, still turned away from her.

Before either could complain any further, the moment was interrupted with a visitor at the door. The Prince’s uncle came in, carrying a bowl of food. He walked it over to her, her stomach growling just at the thought of it. Who knows when the last time she had eaten was; it must be well past midnight by now.

“For the Avatar: thank you guiding our ship through the storm. We are in great debt to you.”

“Thank you,” she said sheepishly, accepting the bowl of noodles. He bowed to her, putting his left hand against the knuckes of his right fist. She repeated the gesture, bowing her head as much as she could while sitting down. She didn’t remember doing anything for them, she must have hit her head or something. “What happened to Zhao?” She asked, breaking her chopsticks and digging in.

“We are not sure of his whereabouts. We haven’t seen him since you threw his ship off course.”

She paused, furrowing her brow. _I did?_ “He is at the mercy of the ocean spirit now, and he is not known to be forgiving.”

“Well spoken. You are a very talented bender, your husband is a lucky man.”

“Hm?” She questioned, raising her eyebrows with her mouth full.

“Your necklace. It means you’re married, aren’t you?”

“Oh, no.” She swallowed and reached up with her free hand and thumbed the pearl in her necklace. “This isn’t an engagement necklace.”

“My mistake, young Avatar.”

Iroh turned away and she continued eating. The Prince’s uncle turned and said something to him, but she couldn’t catch it; she was too focused on dinner. She thought she might have heard something about being available; whatever it was, his face got very red. He whispered something curt to him, then his uncle left the room. She was alone with the Prince once again.

“Well,” she said, trying to break the awkward silence, “I suppose now would be a good time to take my leave.” She put the bowl and her chopsticks on the ground in front of the bed and stood up, brushing herself off.

“You’re not leaving my ship.”

“Uh, I just saved your ship, your entire crew, and your life. We're even.”

“Being even with you doesn’t give me back my throne.”

This time she was more insistent. “It’s fair.”

“I hate to break it to you, but life isn’t fair.”

“Life is fair," she snapped, "but you won’t learn that if you bitch and moan constantly. You got yourself banished, accept it and move on with your life like I did.”

That really set him off. “You have no idea what losing everything is like.”

“Actually, I do. The only difference between us is that you burned down my home, so I can’t go back.”

She started to walk toward the door, but he beat her to it. He slammed it closed with one hand, then grabbed her already bruised wrist with the other, pulling her close to him so that she couldn’t fight back.

“I’m bringing you back downstairs, ungrateful Water Tribe peasant.” He spat down to her.

She used her free hand to make a swift movement upward, following his spine. His posture stiffened and he gasped as he was immobilized.

“How dare you,” her voice was a barely audible growl. Her free hand gained control of the hand grabbing her wrist, and with a twist it was forcibly removed. 

“Don’t you dare touch me again.” She could feel the power of the full moon inside her, the blood vessels in her arms popping out as she held up her newly free hand to gain further control. He cried out as she controlled the blood in his body to throw him backward against the far wall.

She continued, lifting him up into the air. “Trying to destroy the world’s last hope for peace. Look what you’re making me do!”

In saying that, she realized what she had done. She closed eyes and released. She bended the blood away from his head to make him pass out, letting him crash to the floor. She turned around and cracked open the door. It felt like a blur as she hurried down the ladder and down the corridors until she reached the bow. She was shaking and in tears, wiping them away and trying to steady herself as she lept over the railing and onto the sea. The ocean had calmed down considerably at this point, and there was no way she could stay on the ship any longer. She left quietly, bending the water beneath her into a sheet of ice that she used to sail away with. Waterbending herself back toward the shore gave her mind something else to focus on, but she still felt like she could vomit.

_Congratulations Kai, you’re a bloodbender._

* * *

Bato and Gin were camped out on the shore, like Kai had instructed them to do. The two left the city quietly, riding down on Koda together after the army pulled out. Toph agreed to stay behind, making sure that the soldiers didn’t come back. He was starting to get worried about her; she had been gone a long time, and that storm looked rough. He decided to take the first watch, eagerly staring out over the ocean waiting for his friend to return.

Then, he saw her. He saw a spout of water in the distance, like a tiny ship cutting through the water. He decided to let Gin sleep, just for now; when Kai got there, she would probably wake her up. When she finally reached the shore, he could see his was distraught, tears in her eyes as she jumped off of the ice sheet she had used as a surfboard. He walked over to his friend, and she gave him a big hug. 

“What happened? Did they do something to you?”

“No,” she said, her voice cracking, “But I need to tell you something.”

“What, what happened?”

She broke the hug and sat down on the beach, wiping away her tears.

“I’m a bloodbender.” He squeaked out, her voice quivering as her lip shook.

He sat down in front of her, completely in shock. “Where did you learn how to do that?”

“I never told you, I should have told you years ago, I’m so sorry.”

“What’s going on?” Gin poked her head out of her tent. “Kai, what happened? I’m glad to see you’re safe.” She came over and hugged her too, sitting down next to her as she cried.

He started a small fire with the few pieces of dry wood he could find after the rain. After a bit, Kai calmed down enough to tell them her story.

“Master Aok taught me.”

“The greatest healer in the Northern Water Tribe was a bloodbender?”

“Yea. Since I was her star student, she made me learn it.”

“Why didn’t you report it? She would’ve been banished.”

“I was too afraid.” She sighed and rubbed her eyes again. “This happened right before you and I got engaged. The first full moons of that year were when I learned. I never practiced on people, but she told me about how it has medicinal uses, and why the ban was wrong. Once I got good enough in her eyes, I said that I disagreed with her teaching. She threatened me to keep me silent about it. Between that, the engagement, and everything else, I broke down. I was so scared of her" her voice started to break once again. "I didn’t know how to fight back then. And I just did it to another person.” Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she wiped them away with her hands.

“Kai,” Gin said putting her arm around her, “I just want you to know, I don’t think less of you because of what you did. We’ve all done things we regret, but as long as we learn from our mistakes and become better than you’re not a monster.”

“She’s right,” He said, trying his best to console her. “If you really were a monster, you wouldn’t be so upset about this.”

“But what if I lose my temper and I do it again?”

“You won’t.” Bato said. “I’ve known you for how many years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you angry enough to hurt someone like that. You’re a good person. Try and get some rest tonight, you’ve been through a really rough day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Book One! I was mad sick today so this took forever to edit, but here it is. I'll start uploading Book Two next Sunday. Thanks for reading.
> 
> -nein


End file.
